Life in the balance: a signaling network controlling survival of flooding

Recent reports on responses to flooding, submergence, and low-oxygen stress have connected components in an essential regulatory network that underlies plasticity in growth and metabolism essential for the survival of distinct flooding regimes. Here, we discuss growth under severe oxygen-limited conditions (anaerobic growth) and less oxygen-deficient underwater conditions (ethylene-driven underwater growth). Low-oxygen stress causes an energy and carbohydrate crisis that must be controlled through regulated consumption of carbohydrates and energy reserves. In rice (Oryza sativa L.), low-oxygen stress, energy homeostasis and growth are connected by a calcineurin B-like interacting binding kinase (CIPK) in seeds germinated under water. In shoots, two opposing adaptive strategies to submergence, elongation (escape) and inhibition of elongation (quiescence), are controlled by related ethylene response factor (ERF) DNA binding proteins that act downstream of ethylene and modulate gibberellin-mediated shoot growth. Increased resolution of the flooding signaling network will require more precise investigation of the interactions between oxygen tension and cellular energy status in regulation of anaerobic metabolism and ethylene-driven growth, both essential to survival in variable flooding environments.