TOR signaling and stress responses in Arabidopsis thaliana

N. AZNAR; G.L. SALERNO; G. MARTÍNEZ-NOËL

Foz do Iguaçu

Congreso; 11th International congress of Plant Molecular Biology; 2015

In eukaryotic cells, the TOR (Target of Rapamycin) complex is a major signaling pathway that regulates cell growth and development in response to nutrient availability and energy status. Under unfavorable conditions a fine tunning between growth/reproduction and stress responses is required to make efficient use of nutrients and energy. Although, it was demonstrated that TOR signaling plays a key role under stress conditions in animals, little is known in plants. To gain insights into this subject, we studied the effect of diverse abiotic stresses on TOR complex expression in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. RT-PCRs experiments were performed on young seedlings treated with low temperatures, salt or oxidative stress during short or long periods. Besides, Arabidopsis mutants of the TOR complex proteins were subjected to the same stress conditions and the responses were analyzed. Our results indicate that TOR signaling may be involved in plant environmental stress responses; however, future research on how the stress signals are transduced to TOR complex is essential.