'Calcium is life'

Abstract

Ca2+ signaling is critically important for cell and developmental biology. Despite long-standing issues still holding back the field, an increasingly large repertoire of genes and mechanisms has now been described. The unanticipated complexity revealed by genomics is giving way to a renaissance in our understanding, and the characterization of novel molecular mechanisms. The reviews in this special issue bring together research focused on specific structures, including mitochondria, pollen tubes and guard cells, as well as on the processes of ion homeostasis and salt stress tolerance, and nodulation.