A research group led by Yi Keke, a professor of the Innovation Team of Soil-Plant Interactions at the Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, was invited to write a review article that systematically summarizes the latest research in intracellular and intercellular phosphorus transport and signaling in unicellular algae and multicellular land plants, and also proposes further work in the field. The article was published in the New Phytologist under the article type of Tansley insights.

Phosphorus is an essential element for all living things. It is not only a component of many important compounds in plants, but is involved in various biological pathways of plants, such as the synthesis and metabolic processes of fats and carbohydrates. Vacuoles are the main intracellular compartments for P storage and are critical to P remobilization and for buffering the cytoplasmic Pi levels in plant cells. The study of phosphorus absorption, storage and utilization and regulation mechanisms is very important to improve understanding of phosphorus utilization efficiency, which is a research hotspot at home and abroad. 

The article systematically compares the absorption, storage, and transport mechanisms of phosphorus in unicellular green algae and multicellular land plants. In the process of plant evolution, different phosphorus storage forms, absorption and homeostasis regulation mechanisms and transporters have evolved in unicellular green algae and multicellular land plants. In unicellular green algae, phosphate absorbed from the outside is stored in vacuoles in the form of polyphosphoric acid, while in multicellular land plants, it is mainly stored in vacuoles in the form of inorganic phosphate. A class of MYB-CC proteins was employed as the core regulator of Pi starvation as signaled in both unicellular green algae and multicellular land plants. But the mechanisms of Pi absorption and vacuolar P homeostasis have undergone significant changes during the landing and long-term evolution of plants, as well as the P storage forms in vacuolar. By contrast to the unicellular green algae, where the total cell body is exposed to the external environment, the multicellular land plants mainly absorb Pi from the environment by their outer layer of cells. Therefore, intercellular Pi transport and signaling are specialized and vital for multicellular land plants. The article deepens the understanding of phosphorus absorption, regulation, redistribution mechanism and evolution in plants, and has important reference value for follow-up research.

This work was financed by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Innovation Project of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/nph.17716