Cold, Salinity and abiotic stresses cause crop productivity loss at worldwide scale. Many of the physiological changes motivated by the plant adaptation to these stresses unbalance lipid homeostasis at the plasma membrane

Cold, Salinity and other abiotic stresses cause crop productivity loss at worldwide scale. Many of the physiological changes motivated by the plant adaptation to these stresses unbalance lipid homeostasis at the plasma membrane (PM) and induce membrane instability. To counteract this situation, a highly controlled system drives lipid transfer from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) to PM through the so-called contact sites. There, the Synaptotagmin protein family (SYTs) plays a central role displaying a dual function to tether ER and PM and to transport lipids from one membrane to the other. Our analysis explains how SYTs function is activated by changes in the lipid composition at PM and Ca2+ concentration at cytosol The structure and flexibility analysis of the Arabidopsis synaptotagmin 1 reveal the basis of its regulation at membrane contact sites Benavente JL, Siliqi D, Infantes L, Lagartera L, Mills A, Gago F, Ruiz-López N, Botella MA, Sánchez-Barrena MJ, Albert A. Life Science Alliance (2021) published on line 18 August  (doi: 10.26508/lsa.202101152) Synaptotagmins at the endoplasmic reticulum-plasma membrane contact sites maintain diacylglycerol homeostasis during abiotic stress Ruiz-Lopez N, Pérez-Sancho J, Del Valle AE, Haslam RP, Vanneste S, Catalá R, Perea-Resa C, Damme DV, García-Hernández S, Albert A, Vallarino J, Lin J, Friml J, Macho AP, Salinas J, Rosado A, Napier JA, Amorim-Silva V, Botella MA. Plant Cell (2021) 33(7):2431-2453  (doi: 10.1093/plcell/koab122)