The origin and function of calmodulin regulated Ca2+ pumps in plants

While Ca2+ signaling plays an important role in both plants and animals, the machinery that codes and decodes these signals have evolved to show interesting differences and similarities. For example, typical plant and animal cells both utilize calmodulin (CaM)-regulated Ca2+ pumps at the plasma membrane to help control cytoplasmic Ca2+ levels. However, in flowering plants this family of pumps has evolved with a unique structural arrangement in which the regulatory domain is located at the N-terminal instead of C-terminal end. In addition, some of the plant isoforms have evolved to function at endomembrane locations. For the 14 Ca2+ pumps present in the model plant Arabidopsis, molecular genetic analyses are providing exciting insights into their function in diverse aspects of plant growth and development.