Enders Tara A, Frick Elizabeth M, Strader Lucia C
Department of Biology, Washington University in St Louis, 1 Brookings Drive, St Louis, MO, 63130, USA.
Plant J. 2017 Oct;92(1):68-81. doi: 10.1111/tpj.13635. Epub 2017 Aug 28.
Mitogen-activated protein kinase (MPK) cascades are conserved mechanisms of signal transduction across eukaryotes. Despite the importance of MPK proteins in signaling events, specific roles for many Arabidopsis MPK proteins remain unknown. Multiple studies have suggested roles for MPK signaling in a variety of auxin-related processes. To identify MPK proteins with roles in auxin response, we screened mpk insertional alleles and identified mpk1-1 as a mutant that displays hypersensitivity in auxin-responsive cell expansion assays. Further, mutants defective in the upstream MAP kinase kinase MKK3 also display hypersensitivity in auxin-responsive cell expansion assays, suggesting that this MPK cascade affects auxin-influenced cell expansion. We found that MPK1 interacts with and phosphorylates ROP BINDING PROTEIN KINASE 1 (RBK1), a protein kinase that interacts with members of the Rho-like GTPases from Plants (ROP) small GTPase family. Similar to mpk1-1 and mkk3-1 mutants, rbk1 insertional mutants display auxin hypersensitivity, consistent with a possible role for RBK1 downstream of MPK1 in influencing auxin-responsive cell expansion. We found that RBK1 directly phosphorylates ROP4 and ROP6, supporting the possibility that RBK1 effects on auxin-responsive cell expansion are mediated through phosphorylation-dependent modulation of ROP activity. Our data suggest a MKK3 • MPK1 • RBK1 phosphorylation cascade that may provide a dynamic module for altering cell expansion.
丝裂原活化蛋白激酶(MPK)级联反应是真核生物中保守的信号转导机制。尽管MPK蛋白在信号传导事件中很重要,但许多拟南芥MPK蛋白的具体作用仍不清楚。多项研究表明MPK信号在多种生长素相关过程中发挥作用。为了鉴定在生长素反应中起作用的MPK蛋白,我们筛选了mpk插入等位基因,并鉴定出mpk1-1是一种在生长素反应性细胞扩展试验中表现出超敏反应的突变体。此外,上游丝裂原活化蛋白激酶激酶MKK3缺陷的突变体在生长素反应性细胞扩展试验中也表现出超敏反应,这表明该MPK级联反应影响生长素影响的细胞扩展。我们发现MPK1与ROP结合蛋白激酶1(RBK1)相互作用并使其磷酸化,RBK1是一种与植物Rho样GTP酶(ROP)小GTP酶家族成员相互作用的蛋白激酶。与mpk1-1和mkk3-1突变体相似,rbk1插入突变体表现出生长素超敏反应,这与MPK1下游的RBK1在影响生长素反应性细胞扩展中可能发挥的作用一致。我们发现RBK1直接使ROP4和ROP6磷酸化,支持RBK1对生长素反应性细胞扩展的影响可能通过对ROP活性的磷酸化依赖性调节介导的可能性。我们的数据表明存在一个MKK3•MPK1•RBK1磷酸化级联反应,它可能为改变细胞扩展提供一个动态模块。