Gasotransmitters: Novel Roles of Ancient Gases in the Plant Response to Temperature Stress / 中国生物化学与分子生物学报

ABSTRACT

Gas molecules including hydrogen sulfide, nitric oxide, carbon monoxide, ethylene, hydrogen gas, ammonia, methane, hydrogen cyanide, and sulfur dioxide were the main components of primitive atmosphere on the earth four billion years ago. Nowadays, these gases are viewed as gasotransmitters (GTs) in organisms, namely endogenously gaseous molecules. GTs not only regulate many physiological and pathological processes, such as breathing, blood pressure, learning, memory, and the inflammatory response in animals, but also play a key role in the stomatal movement, seed germination, plant growth, development, and response to environmental stress. In this review, we cover the current progress on the metabolism of GTs, their response to temperature stress in plants, and their general characteristics, anabolism, catabolism. In addition, we highlight the key role of the antioxidant system, the osmoregulation system, the ion balance system, the water balance system, heat shock proteins, post-translational modifications, and re-establishment and repair of biomembranes in the mitigation of oxidative stress, osmotic stress, ion stress, water stress, protein denaturation, and biomembrane injury induced by temperature stress. The alleviation of these injuries could increase the resistance of plants to high temperature and low temperature stresses. Furthermore, we summarize the interactions among GTs by initiating chemical reaction, regulating metabolic enzymes, competing target molecules, and triggering new signaling to modulate temperature stress tolerance in plants. The aim of this review is to drive the rapid progress on GTs in the field of plant biology in the future.