Min Chul Kim^*, Woo Sik Chung, Dae-Jin Yun, Moo Je Cho

Division of Applied Life Science (BK21 Program), Plant Molecular Biology and Biotechnology Research Center and Environmental Biotechnology National Core Research Center, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju 660-701, Korea

^*To whom correspondence should be addressed.

ABSTRACT
Sessile plants have developed a very delicate system to sense diverse kinds of endogenous developmental cues and exogenous environmental stimuli by using a simple Ca²⁺ ion. Calmodulin (CaM) is the predominant Ca²⁺ sensor and plays a crucial role in decoding the Ca²⁺ signatures into proper cellular responses in various cellular compartments in eukaryotes. A growing body of evidence points to the importance of Ca²⁺ and CaM in the regulation of the transcriptional process during plant responses to endogenous and exogenous stimuli. Here, we review recent progress in the identification of transcriptional regulators modulated by Ca²⁺ and CaM and in the assessment of their functional significance during plant signal transduction in response to biotic and abiotic stresses and developmental cues.

Key words : Abiotic/environmental stress; calcium signaling/transport; gene expression