Journal
NATURE
Volume 436, Issue 7054, Pages 1176-1180Publisher
NATURE PORTFOLIO
DOI: 10.1038/nature03883
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In plants, the small GTP-binding proteins called Rops work as signalling switches that control growth, development and plant responses to various environmental stimuli(1-3). Rop proteins ( Rho of plants, Rac-like and AtRac in Arabidopsis thaliana) belong to the Rho family of Ras-related GTP-binding proteins that turn on signalling pathways by switching from a GDP-bound inactive to a GTP-bound active conformation(4,5). Activation depends on guanine nucleotide exchange factors ( GEFs) that catalyse the otherwise slow GDP dissociation for subsequent GTP binding(6). Although numerous RhoGEFs exist in animals and yeasts(7), no Rop-specific GEFs have yet been identified in plants and so Rop activation has remained elusive(1-3,8). Here we describe a new family of RhoGEF proteins that are exclusive to plants. We define a unique domain within these RopGEFs, termed PRONE (plant-specific Rop nucleotide exchanger), which is exclusively active towards members of the Rop subfamily. It increases nucleotide dissociation from Rop more than a thousand-fold and forms a tight complex with nucleotide-free Rop. RopGEFs may represent the missing link in signal transduction from receptor kinases to Rops and their identification has implications for the evolution of the Rho molecular switch.
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