ArticlePlant physiology2005
How to activate a plant gravireceptor. Early mechanisms of gravity sensing studied in characean rhizoids during parabolic flights.
Article in Plant physiology, 2005. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers.
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Who cites it
33 citing papers in PubMed.
- Suborbital spaceflight reveals rapid changes in gene expression accompanying the transition to and from space.NPJ microgravity · 2026Article
- Seeds accelerate germination at beneficial planting depths by sensing the sound of rain.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Amyloplasts are necessary for full gravitropism in thallus of Marchantia polymorpha.Journal of experimental botany · 2025Article
- Exploring plant responses to altered gravity for advancing space agriculture.Plant communications · 2025Review
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- Review
- Article
- The cell biology of charophytes: Exploring the past and models for the future.Plant physiology · 2022Article
- Plants in Microgravity: Molecular and Technological Perspectives.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Review
- Conducting Plant Experiments in Space and on the Moon.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2022Review
- Plant Gravitropism: From Mechanistic Insights into Plant Function on Earth to Plants Colonizing Other Worlds.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2022Review
- Analysis of Graviresponse and Biological Effects of Vertical and Horizontal Clinorotation inPlants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Auxin and Root Gravitropism: Addressing Basic Cellular Processes by Exploiting a Defined Growth Response.International journal of molecular sciences · 2021Review
- EARLY STARVATION 1 Is a Functionally Conserved Protein Promoting Gravitropic Responses in Plants by Forming Starch Granules.Frontiers in plant science · 2021Article
- Gravity Signaling in Flowering Plant Roots.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2020Review
- Evolution of fast root gravitropism in seed plants.Nature communications · 2019Article
- Revealing the hierarchy of processes and time-scales that control the tropic response of shoots to gravi-stimulations.Journal of experimental botany · 2019Article
- Effects of spaceflight and simulated microgravity on microbial growth and secondary metabolism.Military Medical Research · 2018Review
- Striking the Right Chord: Signaling Enigma during Root Gravitropism.Frontiers in plant science · 2017Review
- Gravireceptors in eukaryotes-a comparison of case studies on the cellular level.NPJ microgravity · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Early processes underlying plant gravity sensing were investigated in rhizoids of Chara globularis under microgravity conditions provided by parabolic flights of the A300-Zero-G aircraft and of sounding rockets. By applying centrifugal forces during the microgravity phases of sounding rocket flights, lateral accelerations of 0.14 g, but not of 0.05 g, resulted in a displacement of statoliths. Settling of statoliths onto the subapical plasma membrane initiated the gravitropic response. Since actin controls the positioning of statoliths and restricts sedimentation of statoliths in these cells, it can be calculated that lateral actomyosin forces in a range of 2 x 10(-14) n act on statoliths to keep them in place. These forces represent the threshold value that has to be exceeded by any lateral acceleration stimulus for statolith sedimentation and gravisensing to occur. When rhizoids were gravistimulated during parabolic plane flights, the curvature angles of the flight samples, whose sedimented statoliths became weightless for 22 s during the 31 microgravity phases, were not different from those of in-flight 1g controls. However, in ground control experiments, curvature responses were drastically reduced when the contact of statoliths with the plasma membrane was intermittently interrupted by inverting gravistimulated cells for less than 10 s. Increasing the weight of sedimented statoliths by lateral centrifugation did not enhance the gravitropic response. These results provide evidence that graviperception in characean rhizoids requires contact of statoliths with membrane-bound receptor molecules rather than pressure or tension exerted by the weight of statoliths.
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