Pejchar P., Martinec J.
PLANT SIGNALLING & BEHAVIOR 10: e1031938, 2015

Keywords: Aluminium toxicity, Arabidopsis thaliana, benzyl alcohol, BODIPY, diacylglycerol, membrane fluidity, non-specific phospholipase C
Abstract: The first indication of the aluminium (Al) toxicity in plants growing in acidic soils is the cessation of root growth, but the detailed mechanism of Al effect is unknown. Here we examined the impact of Al stress on the activity of non-specific phospholipase C (NPC) in the connection with the processes related to the plasma membrane using fluorescently labelled phosphatidylcholine. We observed a rapid and significant decrease of labelled diacylglycerol (DAG), product of NPC activity, in Arabidopsis seedlings treated with AlCl3. Interestingly, an application of the membrane fluidizer, benzyl alcohol, restored the level of DAG during Al treatment. Our observations suggest that the activity of NPC is affected by Al-induced changes in plasma membrane physical properties.
DOI: IEB authors: Jan Martinec, Přemysl Pejchar