The Screening for Novel Inhibitors of Auxin-Induced Ca2+ Signaling.

Abstract

Ca2+-based second messenger signaling is used by many signal perception mechanisms to modulate specific cellular responses. The well-characterized phytohormone auxin elicits a very rapid Ca2+ signal, but the molecular players involved in auxin-induced Ca2+ signaling are still largely unknown. The complicated and often redundant nature of the plant Ca2+ signaling machinery makes the use of mutants and transgenic lines a painstaking process, which makes a pharmacological approach an attractive alternative to study these processes. Here, we describe the development and utilization of a screening assay that can be used to probe a compound library for inhibitors of auxin-induced Ca2+ entry in plant cell suspensions.