Publikationen - Molekulare Signalverarbeitung

Plant genomes encode numerous small molecule glycosyltransferases which modulate the solubility, activity, immunogenicity and/or reactivity of hormones, xenobiotics and natural products. The products of these enzymes can accumulate to very high concentrations, yet somehow avoid inhibiting their own biosynthesis. Glucosyltransferase UGT74B1 (UDP-glycosyltransferase 74B1) catalyses the penultimate step in the core biosynthetic pathway of glucosinolates, a group of natural products with important functions in plant defence against pests and pathogens. We found that mutation of the highly conserved Ser284 to leucine [wei9-1 (weak ethylene insensitive)] caused only very mild morphological and metabolic phenotypes, in dramatic contrast with knockout mutants, indicating that steady state glucosinolate levels are actively regulated even in unchallenged plants. Analysis of the effects of the mutation via a structural modelling approach indicated that the affected serine interacts directly with UDP-glucose, but also predicted alterations in acceptor substrate affinity and the kcat value, sparking an interest in the kinetic behaviour of the wild-type enzyme. Initial velocity and inhibition studies revealed that UGT74B1 is not inhibited by its glycoside product. Together with the effects of the missense mutation, these findings are most consistent with a partial rapid equilibrium ordered mechanism. This model explains the lack of product inhibition observed both in vitro and in vivo, illustrating a general mechanism whereby enzymes can continue to function even at very high product/precursor ratios.

In eukaryotes, E3 ubiquitin ligases (E3s) mediate the ubiquitylation of proteins that are destined for degradation by the ubiquitin-proteasome system. In SKP1/CDC53/F-box protein (SCF)-type E3 complexes, the interchangeable F-box protein confers specificity to the E3 ligase through direct physical interactions with the degradation substrate. The vast majority of the approximately 700 F-box proteins from the plant model organism Arabidopsis thaliana remain to be characterized. Here, we investigate the previously uncharacterized and evolutionarily conserved Arabidopsis F-box protein 7 (AtFBP7), which is encoded by a unique gene in Arabidopsis (At1g21760). Several apparent fbp7 loss-of-function alleles do not have an obvious phenotype. AtFBP7 is ubiquitously expressed and its expression is induced after cold and heat stress. When following up on a reported co-purification of the eukaryotic elongation factor-2 (eEF-2) with YLR097c, the apparent budding yeast orthologue of AtFBP7, we discovered a general defect in protein biosynthesis after cold and heat stress in fbp7 mutants. Thus, our findings suggest that AtFBP7 is required for protein synthesis during temperature stress.

0

0

0

0