Division of Biological Science, Graduate School of Science, Nagoya University.
Proc Jpn Acad Ser B Phys Biol Sci. 2018;94(2):59-74. doi: 10.2183/pjab.94.006.
The identification of hormones and their receptors in multicellular organisms is one of the most exciting research areas and has lead to breakthroughs in understanding how their growth and development are regulated. In particular, peptide hormones offer advantages as cell-to-cell signals in that they can be synthesized rapidly and have the greatest diversity in their structure and function. Peptides often undergo post-translational modifications and proteolytic processing to generate small oligopeptide hormones. In plants, such small post-translationally modified peptides constitute the largest group of peptide hormones. We initially explored this type of peptide hormone using bioassay-guided fractionation and later by in silico gene screening coupled with biochemical peptide detection, which led to the identification of four types of novel peptide hormones in plants. We also identified specific receptors for these peptides and transferases required for their post-translational modification. This review summarizes how we discovered these peptide hormone-receptor pairs and post-translational modification enzymes, and how these molecules function in plant growth, development and environmental adaptation.
在多细胞生物中鉴定激素及其受体是最令人兴奋的研究领域之一，这一研究促进了人们对激素如何调控其生长和发育的理解。特别是，肽类激素作为细胞间信号具有优势，因为它们可以快速合成，在结构和功能上具有最大的多样性。肽类通常经历翻译后修饰和蛋白水解加工，以产生小的寡肽激素。在植物中，这种经过翻译后修饰的小肽构成了最大的肽类激素群体。我们最初使用生物测定指导的分级分离来探索这种类型的肽类激素，后来通过计算机基因筛选和生化肽检测相结合，在植物中鉴定了四种新型肽类激素。我们还鉴定了这些肽的特异性受体以及它们翻译后修饰所需的转移酶。这篇综述总结了我们如何发现这些肽激素-受体对和翻译后修饰酶，以及这些分子如何在植物生长、发育和环境适应中发挥作用。
