Relationships between calcium and sphingolipid-dependent signalling pathways during the early steps of plant-pathogen interactions

An increase in cellular calcium ion (Ca2+) concentration is now acknowledged to be one of the earliest events occurring during the induction of plant defence responses to a wide variety of pathogens. Sphingoid long-chain bases (LCBs) have also been recently demonstrated to be important mediators of defence-related programmed cell death during pathogen attack. Here, we present recent data highlighting how Ca2+ and LCBs may be interconnected to regulate cellular processes which lead either to plant susceptibility or to resistance mechanisms. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: 12th European Symposium on Calcium. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.