ABSTRACT
Cytoplasmic calcium is a major regulator of plant metabolism and its levels are under strict control, but it increases rapidly and transiently after stress treatments such as cold and touch (Trewavas 1999). Gravity is also thought to affect Ca2+ levels, although one report, using fluorescence microscopy of Ca(2+)-binding dyes, showed no changes (Legue et al. 1997). However, in these studies Ca2+ could not be visualized for at least 1 min after gravistimulation and thus changes could have occurred more rapidly. In order to circumvent problems associated with the delay in taking readings imposed by the fluorescence microscopy techniques, we chose a different method using plants transgenic for the Ca(2+)-binding, light-emitting jellyfish protein aequorin (Knight & Knight 1995). We subjected Arabidopsis and tomato plants to heat-wounding, vibration and gravity stimulation and measured cytoplasmic Ca2+ levels. We also measured the levels of several transcripts after heat-wound and gravity stimulation to determine whether both treatments evoked the same changes.
