Decoding Calcium Signaling: Functional Roles of Calmodulin and Calmodulin‑Like Proteins in Plant Development and Stress Responses.

Calmodulin (CaM) and plant-specific calmodulin-like (CML) proteins decode Ca2+ signaling in plants, with CML sequence divergence and compartment-specific localization enabling specialized developmental and stress functions.

• Why it matters: Calcium signatures must be interpreted to coordinate development and environmental adaptation, but how structurally diverse CMLs and spatially partitioned CaM/CML pools shape these outcomes remains a key challenge.
• What they did: This review synthesizes structural characteristics and functional roles of conserved CaMs versus divergent, structurally variable CMLs, emphasizing subcellular compartmentalization (e.g., chloroplast and nuclear populations) and how it refines photosynthetic and transcriptional responses.
• The result: The synthesis links CaM/CML-mediated pathways to plant development, stress resilience, and secondary metabolism, and frames how manipulating these pathways could support molecular breeding for yield stability and stress tolerance.

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