Chloroplast-specific in vivo Ca2+ imaging using Yellow Cameleon fluorescent protein sensors reveals organelle-autonomous Ca2+ signatures in the stroma

In eukaryotes, subcellular compartments such as mitochondria, the endoplasmic reticulum, lysosomes and vacuoles have the capacity for Ca2+ transport across their membranes to modulate the activity of compartmentalized enzymes or to convey specific cellular signaling events. In plants, it has been suggested that chloroplasts also display Ca2+ regulation. So far monitoring of stromal Ca2+ dynamics in vivo has exclusively relied on using the luminescent Ca2+ probe aequorin. This technique is, however, limited in resolution and can only provide a readout averaged over chloroplast populations from different cells and tissues. Here we present a toolkit of Arabidopsis Ca2+ sensor lines expressing plastid-targeted FRET-based Yellow Cameleon (YC) sensors. We demonstrate that the probes reliably report in vivo Ca2+ dynamics in the stroma of root plastids in response to extracellular ATP and of leaf mesophyll and guard cell chloroplasts during light-to-low intensity blue light illumination transition. Applying YC sensing of stromal Ca2+ dynamics to single chloroplasts we confirm findings of gradual, sustained stromal Ca2+ increases at the tissue level after light-to-low intensity blue light illumination transitions, but monitor transient Ca2+ spiking as a distinct and previously unknown component of stromal Ca2+ signatures. Spiking was dependent on the availability of cytosolic Ca2+ but not synchronized between the chloroplasts of a cell. In contrast, the gradual sustained Ca2+ increase, occurred independent of cytosolic Ca2+ suggesting intra-organellar Ca2+ release. We demonstrate the capacity of the YC sensor toolkit to identify novel, fundamental facets of chloroplast Ca2+ dynamics and to refine the understanding of plastidial Ca2+ regulation.