Intercellular communication in plants: evidence for two rapidly transmitted systemic signals generated in response to electromagnetic field stimulation in tomato

Exposing all of a wild-type tomato plant to electromagnetic radiation evoked rapid and substantial accumulation of basic leucine-zipper transcription factor (bZIP) mRNA in the terminal leaf (#4) with kinetics very similar to that seen in response to wounding, while in the abscisic acid (ABA) mutant (Sitiens), the response was more rapid, but transient. Submitting just the oldest leaf (#1) of a wild-type plant to irradiation evoked bZIP mRNA accumulation both locally in the exposed leaf and systemically in the unexposed (distant) leaf #4, although systemic accumulation was delayed somewhat. Accumulation of Pin2 mRNA was less than bZIP in both the exposed and distant leaves in wild type, but there was no delay in the systemic response. In Sitiens, bZIP mRNA accumulation was far less than in wild type in both local and distant leaves, while Pin2 mRNA accumulation was stronger in the exposed leaf, but totally prevented in the systemic leaf. In the jasmonic acid (JA) mutant (JL-5) and in wild-type plants treated with the ABA biosynthesis inhibitor, naproxen, responses were similar to those in the ABA mutant, while treatment of the exposed leaf with calcium antagonists totally abolished both local and systemic increases in bZIP transcript accumulation.