Publikationen - Molekulare Signalverarbeitung

Wound responses in plants have to be coordinated between organs so that locally reduced growth in a wounded tissue is balanced by appropriate growth elsewhere in the body. We used a JASMONATE ZIM DOMAIN 10 (JAZ10) reporter to screen for mutants affected in the organ-specific activation of jasmonate (JA) signaling in Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings. Wounding one cotyledon activated the reporter in both aerial and root tissues, and this was either disrupted or restricted to certain organs in mutant alleles of core components of the JA pathway including COI1, OPR3, and JAR1. In contrast, three other mutants showed constitutive activation of the reporter in the roots and hypocotyls of unwounded seedlings. All three lines harbored mutations in Novel Interactor of JAZ (NINJA), which encodes part of a repressor complex that negatively regulates JA signaling. These ninja mutants displayed shorter roots mimicking JA-mediated growth inhibition, and this was due to reduced cell elongation. Remarkably, this phenotype and the constitutive JAZ10 expression were still observed in backgrounds lacking the ability to synthesize JA or the key transcriptional activator MYC2. Therefore, JA-like responses can be recapitulated in specific tissues without changing a plant’s ability to make or perceive JA, and MYC2 either has no role or is not the only derepressed transcription factor in ninja mutants. Our results show that the role of NINJA in the root is to repress JA signaling and allow normal cell elongation. Furthermore, the regulation of the JA pathway differs between roots and aerial tissues at all levels, from JA biosynthesis to transcriptional activation.

The COP9 signalosome (CSN) is an eight subunit protein complex conserved in all higher eukaryotes. In Arabidopsis thaliana, the CSN regulates auxin response by removing the ubiquitin-like protein NEDD8/RUB1 from the CUL1 subunit of the SCFTIR1/AFB ubiquitin-ligase (deneddylation). Previously described null mutations in any CSN subunit result in the pleiotropic cop/det/fus phenotype and cause seedling lethality, hampering the study of CSN functions in plant development. In a genetic screen to identify enhancers of the auxin response defects conferred by the tir1-1 mutation, we identified a viable csn mutant of subunit 3 (CSN3), designated eta7/csn3-3. In addition to enhancing tir1-1 mutant phenotypes, the csn3-3 mutation alone confers several phenotypes indicative of impaired auxin signaling including auxin resistant root growth and diminished auxin responsive gene expression. Unexpectedly however, csn3-3 plants are not defective in either the CSN-mediated deneddylation of CUL1 or in SCFTIR1-mediated degradation of Aux/IAA proteins. These findings suggest that csn3-3 is an atypical csn mutant that defines a novel CSN or CSN3-specific function. Consistent with this possibility, we observe dramatic differences in double mutant interactions between csn3-3 and other auxin signaling mutants compared to another weak csn mutant, csn1-10. Lastly, unlike other csn mutants, assembly of the CSN holocomplex is unaffected in csn3-3 plants. However, we detected a small CSN3-containing protein complex that is altered in csn3-3 plants. We hypothesize that in addition to its role in the CSN as a cullin deneddylase, CSN3 functions in a distinct protein complex that is required for proper auxin signaling.

SKP1-Cullin1-F-box protein (SCF) ubiquitin-ligases regulate numerous aspects of eukaryotic growth and development. Cullin-Associated and Neddylation-Dissociated (CAND1) modulates SCF function through its interactions with the CUL1 subunit. Although biochemical studies with human CAND1 suggested that CAND1 plays a negative regulatory role by sequestering CUL1 and preventing SCF complex assembly, genetic studies in Arabidopsis have shown that cand1 mutants exhibit reduced SCF activity, demonstrating that CAND1 is required for optimal SCF function in vivo. Together, these genetic and biochemical studies have suggested a model of CAND1-mediated cycles of SCF complex assembly and disassembly. Here, using the SCFTIR1 complex of the Arabidopsis auxin response pathway, we test the SCF cycling model with Arabidopsis mutant derivatives of CAND1 and CUL1 that have opposing effects on the CAND1–CUL1 interaction. We find that the disruption of the CAND1–CUL1 interaction results in an increased abundance of assembled SCFTIR1 complex. In contrast, stabilization of the CAND1–CUL1 interaction diminishes SCFTIR1 complex abundance. The fact that both decreased and increased CAND1–CUL1 interactions result in reduced SCFTIR1 activity in vivo strongly supports the hypothesis that CAND1-mediated cycling is required for optimal SCF function.