Sensing of osmotic pressure changes in tomato cells

Cells of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) growing in suspension gradually depleted their culture medium and caused a steady decrease in its osmolality. When confronted with a sudden change in medium osmolality (a hypo-osmotic or hyperosmotic shock), respectively, these cells responded with volume changes and stress symptoms such as rapid extracellular alkalinization, efflux of K+-ions, and induction of 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate synthase acid, the key enzyme of ethylene biosynthesis. This array of stress symptoms is well known from cultured plant cells treated with microbial elicitors. Compared with elicitor treatment, induction of responses by hyperosmotic shock was slow and occurred only after increases of approximately 200,000 Pa in osmotic pressure. In contrast, hypo-osmotic shock induced responses without measurable lag and faster than elicitor treatments. Measurable medium alkalinization was induced when medium osmolality was reduced by as little as approximately 10 mosmol, a change corresponding to only approximately 0.2 bar in osmotic pressure. Like treatment with elicitors, hypo-osmotic shock induced specific changes in protein phosphorylations as demonstrated by in vivo labeling with [P-33]orthoyhosphate. Exposure of cells to consecutive up- and down-shifts in medium osmolality showed that sensing of osmotic changes occurred within seconds, whereas adaptation to new osmotic conditions proceeded over hours. In conclusion, suspension-cultured plant cells display rapid, easily measurable macroscopic responses to osmotic shock and provide an interesting model system to study osmoregulation, a key process in plant growth and development.