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1. Plant receptor-like kinase signaling through heterotrimeric G-proteins

   https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/eraa016  

   Pandey, Sona; Mittler, Ron (January 2020, Journal of Experimental Botany)

   Abstract Heterotrimeric G-proteins regulate multiple aspects of plant growth, development, and response to biotic and abiotic stresses. While the core components of heterotrimeric G-proteins and their basic biochemistry are similar in plants and metazoans, key differences exist in their regulatory mechanisms. In particular, the activation mechanisms of plant G-proteins appear diverse and may include both canonical and novel modes. Classical G-protein-coupled receptor-like proteins exist in plants and interact with Gα proteins, but their ability to activate Gα by facilitating GDP to GTP exchange has not been demonstrated. Conversely, there is genetic and functional evidence that plant G-proteins interact with the highly prevalent receptor-like kinases (RLKs) and are phosphorylated by them. This suggests the exciting scenario that in plants the G-proteins integrate RLK-dependent signal perception at the plasma membrane with downstream effectors. Because RLKs are active kinases, it is also likely that the activity of plant G-proteins is regulated via phosphorylation/dephosphorylation rather than GTP–GDP exchange as in metazoans. This review discusses our current knowledge of the possible RLK-dependent regulatory mechanisms of plant G-protein signaling in the context of several biological systems and outlines the diversity that might exist in such regulation. 

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2. Next generation Arctic vegetation maps: Aboveground plant biomass and woody dominance mapped at 30 m resolution across the tundra biome

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2025.114717  

   Orndahl, Kathleen M; Berner, Logan T; Macander, Matthew J; Arndal, Marie F; Alexander, Heather D; Humphreys, Elyn R; Loranty, Michael M; Ludwig, Sarah M; Nyman, Johanna; Juutinen, Sari; et al (June 2025, Remote Sensing of Environment)

   Chen, Jing M (Ed.)

   The Arctic is warming faster than anywhere else on Earth, placing tundra ecosystems at the forefront of global climate change. Plant biomass is a fundamental ecosystem attribute that is sensitive to changes in climate, closely tied to ecological function, and crucial for constraining ecosystem carbon dynamics. However, the amount, functional composition, and distribution of plant biomass are only coarsely quantified across the Arctic. Therefore, we developed the first moderate resolution (30 m) maps of live aboveground plant biomass (g m− 2) and woody plant dominance (%) for the Arctic tundra biome, including the mountainous Oro Arctic. We modeled biomass for the year 2020 using a new synthesis dataset of field biomass harvest measurements, Landsat satellite seasonal synthetic composites, ancillary geospatial data, and machine learning models. Additionally, we quantified pixel-wise uncertainty in biomass predictions using Monte Carlo simulations and validated the models using a robust, spatially blocked and nested cross-validation procedure. Observed plant and woody plant biomass values ranged from 0 to ~6000 g m− 2 (mean ≈350 g m− 2), while predicted values ranged from 0 to ~4000 g m− 2 (mean ≈275 g m− 2), resulting in model validation root-mean-squared-error (RMSE) ≈400 g m− 2 and R2 ≈ 0.6. Our maps not only capture large-scale patterns of plant biomass and woody plant dominance across the Arctic that are linked to climatic variation (e.g., thawing degree days), but also illustrate how fine-scale patterns are shaped by local surface hydrology, topography, and past disturbance. By providing data on plant biomass across Arctic tundra ecosystems at the highest resolution to date, our maps can significantly advance research and inform decision-making on topics ranging from Arctic vegetation monitoring and wildlife conservation to carbon accounting and land surface modeling 

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3. Moving beyond the arabidopsis-centric view of G-protein signaling in plants

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tplants.2023.07.014  

   Mohanasundaram, Boominathan; Pandey, Sona (December 2023, Trends in Plant Science)

   Heterotrimeric G-protein-mediated signaling is a key mechanism to transduce a multitude of endogenous and environmental signals in diverse organisms. The scope and expectations of plant G-protein research were set by pioneering work in metazoans. Given the similarity of the core constituents, G-protein-signaling mechanisms were presumed to be universally conserved. However, because of the enormous diversity of survival strategies and endless forms among eukaryotes, the signal, its interpretation, and responses vary even among different plant groups. Earlier G-protein research in arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) has emphasized its divergence from Metazoa. Here, we compare recent evidence from diverse plant lineages with the available arabidopsis G-protein model and discuss the conserved and novel protein components, signaling mechanisms, and response regulation. 

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4. Abscisic acid‐controlled redox proteome of Arabidopsis and its regulation by heterotrimeric Gβ protein

   https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.18348  

   Smythers, Amanda L.; Bhatnagar, Nikita; Ha, Chien; Majumdar, Parinita; McConnell, Evan W.; Mohanasundaram, Boominathan; Hicks, Leslie M.; Pandey, Sona (July 2022, New Phytologist)

   Summary The plant hormone abscisic acid (ABA) plays crucial roles in regulation of stress responses and growth modulation. Heterotrimeric G‐proteins are key mediators of ABA responses. Both ABA and G‐proteins have also been implicated in intracellular redox regulation; however, the extent to which reversible protein oxidation manipulates ABA and/or G‐protein signaling remains uncharacterized.To probe the role of reversible protein oxidation in plant stress response and its dependence on G‐proteins, we determined the ABA‐dependent reversible redoxome of wild‐type and Gβ‐protein null mutantagb1of Arabidopsis.We quantified 6891 uniquely oxidized cysteine‐containing peptides, 923 of which show significant changes in oxidation following ABA treatment. The majority of these changes required the presence of G‐proteins. Divergent pathways including primary metabolism, reactive oxygen species response, translation and photosynthesis exhibited both ABA‐ and G‐protein‐dependent redox changes, many of which occurred on proteins not previously linked to them.We report the most comprehensive ABA‐dependent plant redoxome and uncover a complex network of reversible oxidations that allow ABA and G‐proteins to rapidly adjust cellular signaling to adapt to changing environments. Physiological validation of a subset of these observations suggests that functional G‐proteins are required to maintain intracellular redox homeostasis and fully execute plant stress responses. 

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5. Evolutionarily Conserved and Non-Conserved Roles of Heterotrimeric Gα Proteins of Plants

   https://doi.org/10.1093/pcp/pcac045  

   Pandey, Sona; Roy Choudhury, Swarup; Ha, Chien Van; Mohanasundaram, Boominathan; Li, Mao; Dodds, Audrey (April 2022, Plant and Cell Physiology)

   Abstract Heterotrimeric G-proteins modulate multiple signaling pathways in many eukaryotes. In plants, G-proteins have been characterized primarily from a few model angiosperms and a moss. Even within this small group, they seem to affect plant phenotypes differently: G-proteins are essential for survival in monocots, needed for adaptation but are nonessential in eudicots, and are required for life cycle completion and transition from the gametophytic to sporophytic phase in the moss Physcomitrium (Physcomitrella) patens. The classic G-protein heterotrimer consists of three subunits: one Gα, one Gβ and one Gγ. The Gα protein is a catalytically active GTPase and, in its active conformation, interacts with downstream effectors to transduce signals. Gα proteins across the plant evolutionary lineage show a high degree of sequence conservation. To explore the extent to which this sequence conservation translates to their function, we complemented the well-characterized Arabidopsis Gα protein mutant, gpa1, with Gα proteins from different plant lineages and with the yeast Gpa1 and evaluated the transgenic plants for different phenotypes controlled by AtGPA1. Our results show that the Gα protein from a eudicot or a monocot, represented by Arabidopsis and Brachypodium, respectively, can fully complement all gpa1 phenotypes. However, the basal plant Gα failed to complement the developmental phenotypes exhibited by gpa1 mutants, although the phenotypes that are exhibited in response to various exogenous signals were partially or fully complemented by all Gα proteins. Our results offer a unique perspective on the evolutionarily conserved functions of G-proteins in plants. 

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