Mechanoperception in Plants: Integrating Evolution, Biophysics, and Quantitative Signaling

Plants constantly experience mechanical forces arising from touch, wind, gravity, osmotic fluctuations, growth-driven tensions, and biotic interactions. Far from being passive, they actively perceive and translate these cues into biochemical and developmental responses through coordinated signaling networks, including rapid cytosolic Ca²⁺ elevations and activation of mechanosensitive channels. The mechanical properties of plant tissues, such as plasticity and elasticity, are central to how cells and organs respond to changing physical conditions. Their interplay with mechanotransduction pathways underlies growth regulation, organ shaping, and adaptation to mechanical loads. A comparative and evolutionary perspective is essential to fully understand the diversity and conservation of these mechanisms.To this end, it is fundamental to adopt comparative and evolutionary frameworks. Early-diverging land plants, such as Marchantia polymorpha and Physcomitrium patens, as well as charophyte algae, provide unique systems to investigate whether core mechanosensitive modules, including those governing plasticity, elasticity, and gravity perception, represent conserved ancestral traits or lineage-specific innovations. Exploring mechanotransduction across phylogenetic boundaries will illuminate how early land plants adapted to mechanically heterogeneous terrestrial environments and how the transition from aquatic to terrestrial life shaped the biophysical toolkit of extant species.A comprehensive understanding of plant mechanoperception that spans the evolution of force-sensing systems, the biomechanics of tissue deformation, quantitative force application, and the molecular machinery of signal transduction is still emerging. This Research Topic aims to foster dialogue across disciplines and to promote cross-fertilization between plant biology, biophysics, bioengineering, computational modeling, and evolutionary developmental biology. We particularly encourage contributions that integrate innovative investigation technologies, such as atomic force microscopy, nano- and micro-indentation, microfabricated stimulation platforms, advanced fluorescence imaging, biosensors, rheological measurements, and mathematical modelling, with genetic, molecular, and phylogenomic approaches.We welcome original research articles, methods papers, reviews, and perspectives addressing topics including, but not limited to:• Quantitative analysis of force perception and mechanotransduction;• Mechanical plasticity and elastic properties of cells, walls, and tissues;• Ca²⁺ dynamics and ion channel-mediated signaling in response to mechanical stimuli;• Biophysical characterization of cell and tissue mechanics (indentation, rheology, tensile testing);• Integration of mechanical cues with development and morphogenesis;• Long-distance and systemic responses to mechanical stimuli;• Evolutionary conservation and divergence of mechanosensitive and gravisensing pathways across land plants and algal relatives;• Theoretical and computational modeling of plant mechanical behavior and signaling;• Technical innovation of experimental instrumentation and protocols for quantitative biomechanics.By bridging scales, from molecules to whole organisms, and disciplines, from physics to evolutionary biology, this Research Topic seeks to define the biophysical and evolutionary principles governing plant responses to mechanical forces and to inspire innovative interdisciplinary collaborations in plant science. Topic editors: Alessia Candeo, Francesca Resentini Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/79163/mechanoperception-in-plants-integrating-evolution-biophysics-and-quantitative-signaling