The 9th Tsuneko & Reiji Okazaki Award 2025 Winner

Mechano/chemosensory signal transduction in plants

Masatsugu Toyota
Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Saitama University;
Research Director, JST ERATO TOYOTA Plant Sensory Transduction Project;
SunRiSE Fellow, Suntory Rising Stars Encouragement Program in Life Sciences (SunRiSE), Suntory Foundation for Life Sciences;
Visiting Professor, College of Plant Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University

Plants perceive a variety of mechanical and chemical stimuli, including touch, herbivore attack and volatile organic compounds, allowing them to adapt to changing environments. These responses involve the rapid transmission of information over long distances, triggering local, systemic and inter-plant reactions. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying such rapid mechano/chemosensory signal transduction in plants remain largely unknown. We have developed wide-field fluorescence imaging and electrophysiological recording systems. Using these custom-made systems for simultaneous recording of cytosolic Ca²⁺ and electrical signals, we visualized plant-wide Ca²⁺ dynamics coupled with electrical activities in Arabidopsis, the carnivorous plant Venus flytrap and the sensitive plant Mimosa pudica. Our findings reveal that plants integrate evolutionarily conserved mechanisms (e.g., glutamate receptor channels) with plant-specific systems (e.g., phloem and stomata), enabling them to execute rapid Ca²⁺-mediated defense responses, movements and inter-plant communication through airborne volatiles. These technological advances uncover the hidden capacities of plants and open new perspectives on sensory transduction across living organisms.

Reference

1. Suda S, Asakawa H, Hagihara T, Ohi S, Segami S, Hasebe M, Toyota M (2025) MSL10 is a high-sensitivity mechanosensor in the tactile sense of the Venus flytrap. Nat. Commun. 16: 8280. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-63419-w
2. Aratani Y^†, Uemura T^†, Hagihara T, Matsui K, Toyota M (2023) Green leaf volatile sensory calcium transduction in Arabidopsis. Nat. Commun. 14:6236. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-41589-9
3. Hagihara T^†, Mano H^†, Miura T, Hasebe M, Toyota M (2022) Calcium-mediated rapid movements defend against herbivorous insects in Mimosa pudica. Nat. Commun. 13:6412. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-41589-9
4. Toyota M, Spencer D, Sawai-Toyota S, Wang J, Zhang T, Koo AJ, Howe GA, Gilroy S (2018) Glutamate triggers long-distance, calcium-based plant defense signaling. Science 361:1112-1115. DOI: 10.1126/science.aat7744

^† equally contributed

Award Lecture