The interaction of CaM7 and CNGC14 regulates root hair growth in Arabidopsis

Oscillations in cytosolic free calcium determine the polarity of tip-growing root hairs. The Ca2+ channel cyclic nucleotide gated channel 14 (CNGC14) contributes to the dynamic changes in Ca2+ concentration gradient at the root hair tip. However, the mechanisms that regulate CNGC14 are unknown. In this study, we detected a direct interaction between calmodulin 7 (CaM7) and CNGC14 through yeast two-hybrid and bimolecular fluorescence complementation assays. We demonstrated that the third EF-hand domain of CaM7 specifically interacts with the cytosolic C-terminal domain of CNGC14. A two-electrode voltage clamp assay showed that CaM7 completely inhibits CNGC14-mediated Ca2+ influx, suggesting that CaM7 negatively regulates CNGC14-mediated calcium signaling. Furthermore, CaM7 overexpressing lines phenocopy the short root hair phenotype of a cngc14 mutant and this phenotype is insensitive to changes in external Ca2+ concentrations. We, thus, identified CaM7-CNGC14 as a novel interacting module that regulates polar growth in root hairs by controlling the tip-focused Ca2+ signal.