Communicating Across Cell Walls: Structure, Evolution, and Regulation of Plasmodesmatal Transport in Plants

Plasmodesmata are conduits in plant cell walls that allow neighboring cells to communicate and exchange resources. Despite their central importance to plant development and physiology, our understanding of plasmodesmata is relatively limited compared to other subcellular structures. In recent years, technical advances in electron microscopy, mass spectrometry, and phylogenomics have illuminated the structure, composition, and evolution of plasmodesmata in diverse plant lineages. In parallel, forward genetic screens have revealed key signaling pathways that converge to regulate plasmodesmatal transport, including chloroplast-derived retrograde signaling, phytohormone signaling, and metabolic regulation by the conserved eukaryotic Target of Rapamycin kinase. This review summarizes our current knowledge of the structure, evolution, and regulation of plasmodesmatal transport in plants.