Does aluminum generate a bonafide phospholipd signal cascade?

The cascade of phospholipid signals, is one of the main systems of cellular transduction, and is related to other signal transduction mechanisms. These include the interaction between the generation of second messengers and different proteins such as ionic channels, protein kinase proteins, signaling proteins and transcription factors, among others. The result of this interaction could alter cellular metabolism. This phospholipid signal cascade is activated by the changes on the environment such as phosphate starvation, water and saline stress, as well as plant-pathogen interactions.Because aluminum has been considered a main toxic factor for agriculture carried out in acid soils, many researches have focused on aluminum toxic mechanism in plants.1,2 We contribute by researching on the aluminum effects on phospholipids signalling. We focused on phosphatidic acid (PA), because its relevant role in signal cascades in plants. Also PA is the precursor of most of the phospholipids in their de novo biosynthesis. Our results show a dramatic inhibitory effects by aluminum on PA. The most important PA formation routes in plant signalling are: phospholipase C (PLC)/diacylglycerol kinase (DGK) and phospholipase D (PLD).3 We investigated which one of the pathways was affected by aluminum treatment and found that aluminum affects mainly the PLC/DGK route of PA formation. We conclude that Al(3+) not only could generate a signal cascade in plants, but that it can also modulate other signal cascades generated by others stress. The aim of this addendum is to discuss the possible involvements of other phospholipids in the aluminum toxicity in plant cells.