Publikationen - Molekulare Signalverarbeitung

The phytohormone auxin is a potent regulator of plant development. Since its discovery in the beginning of the twentieth century many aspects of auxin biology have been extensively studied, ranging from biosynthesis and metabolism to the elucidation of molecular components of downstream signaling. With the identification of the F-box protein TIR1 as an auxin receptor a major breakthrough in understanding auxin signaling has been achieved and recent modeling approaches have shed light on the putative mechanisms underlying the establishment of auxin gradients and maxima essential for many auxin-regulated processes. Here, we review these and other recent advances in unraveling the entanglement of biosynthesis, polar transport and cellular signaling events that allow small auxinic molecules to facilitate their complex regulatory action.

Regulated cell expansion allows plants to adapt their morphogenesis to prevailing environmental conditions. Cell expansion is driven by turgor pressure created by osmotic water uptake and is restricted by the extensibility of the cell wall, which in turn is regulated by the synthesis, incorporation, and cross-linking of new cell wall components. The vacuolar H+-ATPase (V-ATPase) could provide a way to coordinately regulate turgor pressure and cell wall synthesis, as it energizes the secondary active transport of solutes across the tonoplast and also has an important function in the trans-Golgi network (TGN), which affects synthesis and trafficking of cell wall components. We have previously shown that det3, a mutant with reduced V-ATPase activity, has a severe defect in cell expansion. However, it was not clear if this is caused by a defect in turgor pressure or in cell wall synthesis. Here, we show that inhibition of the tonoplast-localized V-ATPase subunit isoform VHA-a3 does not impair cell expansion. By contrast, inhibition of the TGN-localized isoform VHA-a1 is sufficient to restrict cell expansion. Furthermore, we provide evidence that the reduced hypocotyl cell expansion in det3 is conditional and due to active, hormone-mediated growth inhibition caused by a cell wall defect.

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.

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