second-messengers
Second messengers are intracellular signaling molecules that relay and amplify signals from the cell surface to internal targets, translating external environmental or hormonal cues into coordinated cellular responses. In plants, second messengers such as calcium ions, cyclic nucleotides, and reactive oxygen species play critical roles in mediating responses to stimuli like light, pathogens, drought, and touch. Understanding these signaling cascades is essential for deciphering how plants sense and adapt to their environment, with implications for improving stress tolerance and crop resilience.
open_in_new WikipediaPubMed · 2026-05-08
Plants use two structural variants of a key chemical messenger (cAMP) that were previously thought to work independently, but new research reveals they form parallel signaling systems. This challenges decades of plant biology focused almost exclusively on one form, opening new questions about how plants sense and respond to their environment.
2',3'-cAMP, a structural isomer long overlooked in plant biology, is biologically active and present in plants alongside the well-characterized 3',5'-cAMP
The two cAMP isomers function as parallel signaling systems rather than redundant or interchangeable molecules, suggesting distinct roles in plant physiology
The study characterizes both the biogenesis (how each isomer is produced) and downstream effects of each form, providing the first comparative framework for both pathways in plants