Conserved and plant-unique strategies for overcoming endoplasmic reticulum stress

Stress caused by environmental conditions or physiological growth can lead to an accumulation of unfolded proteins in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) causing ER stress, which in turn triggers a cytoprotective mechanism termed the unfolded protein response (UPR). Under mild-short stress conditions the UPR can restore ER functioning and cell growth, such as reducing the load of unfolded proteins through the upregulation of genes involved in protein folding and in degrading mis-folded proteins, and through autophagy activation, but it can also lead to cell death under prolonged and severe stress conditions. A diversified suite of sensors has been evolved in the eukaryotic lineages to orchestrate the UPR most likely to suit the cell’s necessity to respond to the different kinds of stress in a conserved as well as species-specific manner. In plants three UPR sensors cooperate with non-identical signaling pathways: the protein kinase inositol-requiring enzyme (IRE1), the ER-membrane-associated transcription factor bZIP28, and the GTP-binding protein β1 (AGB1). In this mini-review, we show how plants differ from the better characterized metazoans and fungi, providing an overview of the signaling pathways of the UPR, and highlighting the overlapping and the peculiar roles of the different UPR branches in light of evolutionary divergences in eukaryotic kingdoms.