Authors:

Niki Hamraei

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About Paper:

Plants release volatile organic compounds (VOCs) to communicate with microbes, insects, and other plants as well as between different tissues within a plant. Terpenoids, one class of VOCs, act like hormones to influence reproductive organ development. Specifically, the sesquiterpene (-)-germacrene D is emitted from developing tubes of petunia flowers and accumulates in the stigma where it is perceived by a member of the intermediate clade of karrikin-insensitive alpha/beta hydrolase receptors, PhKAI2ia. The signaling cascade that follows is distinct, with some similarities to the canonical karrikin signaling pathway that acts through the Skp1-Cullin-F- box (SCF) E3 ubiquitin ligase complex, including the F-box protein MORE AXILLARY GROWTH 2 (MAX2), as well as the ubiquitination and degradation of the transcriptional corepressor, SUPPRESSOR OF MAX2 1 (SMAX1). Interestingly, petunia has two MAX2s that both interact with PhKAI2ia; however, while it also contains two SMAX1s, only SMAX1a degradation is induced by the volatile signal. This raises the question of the differential physiological roles of the two SMAX1s in planta. In silico protein analyses predicted several noteworthy differences in primary sequence and protein structure between SMAX1a and SMAX1b, primarily in the domains essential for KAI2-mediated degradation. We hypothesize that these structural differences between the two proteins are key determinants in their role and determine specificity of downstream KAI2- mediated signaling response(s). This study aims to identify the biological impact of these structural differences and elucidate the SMAX1-dependent signal transduction steps in the PhKAI2-mediated signaling pathway(s). Keywords: Petunia hybrida; Volatile Organic Compounds; PhKAI2ia; PhSMAX1; PhMAX2

Source:

Purdue University / 2024

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Co-authors:

Niki Hamraei