Evidence for the involvement of AtPiezo in mechanical responses.

The plant-environment interactions are finely tuned by plant endogenous signals and environmental cues. Mechanical forces serve as important exogenous stimuli regulating plant growth and development and shaping plant structures. Studies have shown that mechanosensitive ion channels play essential roles in the responses to mechanical signals in plants. The biological functions of animal Piezos, a group of mechanosensitive ion channels, have been extensively studied and revealed to be required for normal physiological processes. However, little is known about the functions of the homologous genes of animal Piezo genes in plants. We have recently pinpointed that AtPiezo plays an important role in the root cap in response to mechanical forces in Arabidopsis thaliana. Here, we further show that AtPiezo responds to mechanical stimuli at the transcriptional level. The results provide additional evidence for the involvement of Piezo in mechanical responses in plants.