Abstract
Coordination of plant development requires modulation of growth responses that are under control of the phytohormone auxin. PIN-FORMED plasma membrane proteins, involved in intercellular transport of the growth regulator, are key to the transmission of such auxin signals and subject to multilevel surveillance mechanisms, including reversible post-translational modifications. Apart from well-studied PIN protein modifications, namely phosphorylation and ubiquitylation, no further post-translational modifications have been described so far. Here, we focused on root-specific Arabidopsis PIN2 and explored functional implications of two evolutionary conserved cysteines, by a combination of in silico and molecular approaches. PIN2 sequence alignments and modeling predictions indicated that both cysteines are facing the cytoplasm and therefore would be accessible to redox status-controlled modifications. Notably, mutant pin2C−A alleles retained functionality, demonstrated by their ability to almost completely rescue defects of a pin2 null allele, whereas high resolution analysis of pin2C−A localization revealed increased intracellular accumulation, and altered protein distribution within plasma membrane micro-domains. The observed effects of cysteine replacements on root growth and PIN2 localization are consistent with a model in which redox status-dependent cysteine modifications participate in the regulation of PIN2 mobility, thereby fine-tuning polar auxin transport.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Article number | 2274 |
Journal | International Journal of Molecular Sciences |
Volume | 18 |
Issue number | 11 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 29 Oct 2017 |
Bibliographical note
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license.Keywords
- Auxin
- PIN proteins
- Plasma membrane protein sorting
- Protein mobility
- Intracellular distribution
- Root phenotype
- Arabidopsis
- Protein modeling
- SRRF
Fingerprint Dive into the research topics of 'Evolutionary conserved cysteines function as cis-acting regulators of Arabidopsis PIN-FORMED 2 distribution'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.
Profiles
-
Charo del Genio
- Faculty Research Centre in Fluid and Complex Systems - Assistant Professor (Academic)
Person: Teaching and Research