动物通过神经系统对受伤快速做出反应。Nature杂志1992年发表的一篇论文提出了当时有争议的观点：植物也利用远距离电信号对受伤做出反应。此后人们已经清楚有些植物用电信号来控制它们的运动，尽管这一现象背后的基因并不知道。现在有了可靠实验和遗传证据来支持早先关于伤口信号作用的发现，同时说明与介导脊椎动物突触传递的谷氨酸盐受体相关的蛋白也参与其中。Edward Farmer及同事发现，弄伤拟南芥的一片叶子，会导致刺激\"茉莉酮酸酯”（使拟南芥对食草动物和病原体产生抵抗力的植物激素）的电活动在与伤口有一定距离的未受损处传播。这一过程是由被GLR基因编码的阳离子通道介导的。

原学术论文:Nature doi: 10.1038/nature12478

GLUTAMATE RECEPTOR-LIKE genes mediate leaf-to-leaf wound signalling

Wounded leaves communicate their damage status to one another through a poorly understood process of long-distance signalling. This stimulates the distal production of jasmonates, potent regulators of defence responses. Using non-invasive electrodes we mapped surface potential changes in Arabidopsis thaliana after wounding leaf eight and found that membrane depolarizations correlated with jasmonate signalling domains in undamaged leaves. Furthermore, current injection elicited jasmonoyl-isoleucine accumulation, resulting in a transcriptome enriched in RNAs encoding key jasmonate signalling regulators. From among 34 screened membrane protein mutant lines, mutations in several clade 3 GLUTAMATE RECEPTOR-LIKE genes (GLRs 3.2, 3.3 and 3.6) attenuated wound-induced surface potential changes. Jasmonate-response gene expression in leaves distal to wounds was reduced in a glr3.3 glr3.6 double mutant. This work provides a genetic basis for investigating mechanisms of long-distance wound signalling in plants and indicates that plant genes related to those important for synaptic activity in animals function in organ-to-organ wound signalling.

转自生物谷