Protein S-nitrosylation in plants: Current progresses and challenges.

Nitric oxide (NO) plays important roles in the regulation of multiple aspects of plant development and stress responses. A major physiological function of NO is executed via protein S-nitrosylation, a redox-based posttranslational modification by covalently adding an NO molecule to a reactive cysteine thiol of a target protein. S-nitrosylation is an evolutionarily conserved mechanism regulating diverse biological processes in all living organisms. During the past decade, significant progresses have been made in functional characterization of S-nitrosylated proteins in plants. Emerging evidences indicate that protein S-nitrosylation is ubiquitously involved in plant development and stress responses. Here we review current understanding on the regulatory mechanisms of protein S-nitrosylation in various biological processes in plants and highlight key challenges in this field.