The Screening for Novel Inhibitors of Auxin-Induced Ca 2+ Signaling.

Ca-based second messenger signaling is used by many signal perception mechanisms to modulate specific cellular responses. The well-characterized phytohormone auxin elicits a very rapid Ca signal, but the molecular players involved in auxin-induced Ca signaling are still largely unknown. The complicated and often redundant nature of the plant Ca signaling machinery makes the use of mutants and transgenic lines a painstaking process, which makes a pharmacological approach an attractive alternative to study these processes. Here, we describe the development and utilization of a screening assay that can be used to probe a compound library for inhibitors of auxin-induced Ca entry in plant cell suspensions.