Auxin Signalling

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Head: Marcel Quint

For detailed information on our group see the Quint Lab website.

We are primarily interested in the signal transduction pathways and homeostasis of the phytohormone auxin. Auxin regulates a host of plant developmental and physiological processes, including embryogenesis, vascular differentiation, organogenesis, tropic growth, and root and shoot architecture. Genetic and biochemical studies carried out over the past decade have revealed that much of this regulation involves the SCF^TIR1/AFB-mediated proteolysis of the Aux/IAA family of transcriptional regulators. The SCF^TIR1/AFB E3 ubiquitin ligases recruit the Aux/IAA transcriptional repressor proteins for ubiquitination and subsequent degradation by the 26S proteasome. Thereby, they facilitate auxin-induced gene expression. The TIR1/AFB F-box subunits simultaneously function as the target-recruiting component of the complex and the auxin receptors.

Hence, a potentially complete, and surprisingly simple, signaling pathway from perception to transcriptional response is before us. However, understanding how this seemingly simple pathway controls the myriad of specific auxin responses remains a daunting challenge, and compelling evidence exists for SCF^TIR1/AFB-independent auxin signaling pathways.

The independent Junior Research Group "Auxin Signal Transduction" applies genetic approaches in the plant model organism Arabidopsis thaliana to identify novel players in the auxin signaling system and/or SCF complex-regulating components. In a complementing approach we want to exploit the naturally occurring variation for auxin-regulated phenotypes.

The Junior Research Group "Auxin Signal Transduction" is part of the excellence network "Structures and Mechanisms of Biological Information Processing" which has been initiated by the Federal State of Sachsen-Anhalt.