The unique complexity and responsiveness of the regulatory redox network in plant cells

The lifestyle of plants depends on expanded below and above ground organs for highly efficient absorption of nutrients and water, and light and CO₂ respectively. These properties render plants particularly susceptible to changing environmental conditions. To respond and counteract such potential environmental stresses, but also to control developmental processes, plants maintain an extraordinarily complex redox network consisting of redox input elements, transmitters, regulatory targets and sensors for reactive oxygen species. The complexity of this network exceeds that of animals severalfold as can be concluded from the gene sizes of involved protein families or the vast number of redox regulated target proteins. The nature of the regulatory dithiol-disulfide redox network of plants and our present day knowledge about its function will be exemplarily explored. The network controls or modulates diverse metabolic pathways including photosynthesis, transporters, signalling cascades as well as transcriptional and posttranscriptional processes in a highly dynamic manner.