“…At least two types of responses can occur when the cytoplasmic Ca^^ concentration changes (Fig, 1), the transient and the long-lived (Hepler & Wayne, 1985), Transient responses usually depend more or less directly on the actual Ca^^ concentration, an example of this being the action potential-induced, Ca^ +-mediated, cessation of cytoplasmic streaming (Simons, 1981;Williamson & Ashley, 1982;Kikuyama & Tazawa, 1983;Beilby, 1984;Beilby & MacRobbie, 1984;Haupt & Seitz, 1984), Some of the long-lived responses may be triggered by Ca^^/calmodulin-mediated events involving activation of protein kinases or phosphatases which in turn phosphorylate or dephosphorylate a wide variety of proteins (Hetherington & Trewavas, 1982Salimath & Marme, 1983;Dieter, 1984;Polya, Schibeci & Micucci, 1984;Veluthambi & Poovaiah, 1984). Long-lived responses might also be modulated via a different Ca^^ effect, perhaps wound-induced (Theologis & Laties, 1980, on membrane phosphohpids, involving phosphoinositol and relatives, and this may comprise a signalling mechanism equal in importance to that of calmodulin (Nishizuka, 1983;Joseph, 1984;Fisher, Van Rooijen, & Agranoff, 1984;Majerus et al, 1985;Morre et al, 1984), Other Ca^^-mediated processes, especially those involving the cytoskeleton, might include both short-and long-term components.…”