J Integr Plant Biol. ›› 2021, Vol. 63 ›› Issue (7): 1353-1366.DOI: 10.1111/jipb.13093

Special Issue: Hormone signaling

• Molecular Physiology • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Protein farnesylation negatively regulates brassinosteroid signaling via reducing BES1 stability in Arabidopsis thaliana

Zengxiu Feng, Hongyong Shi, Minghui Lv, Yuang Ma and Jia Li*   

  1. Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Cell Activities and Stress Adaptations, School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China

    †These authors contributed equally to this work.
    *
    Correspondence: Jia Li (lijia@lzu.edu.cn)
  • Received:2021-02-09 Accepted:2021-03-23 Online:2021-03-25 Published:2021-07-01

Abstract: Brassinosteroids (BRs) are a group of steroidal phytohormones, playing critical roles in almost all physiological aspects during the life span of a plant. In Arabidopsis, BRs are perceived at the cell surface, triggering a reversible phosphorylation-based signaling cascade that leads to the activation and nuclear accumulation of a family of transcription factors, represented by BES1 and BZR1. Protein farnesylation is a type of post-translational modification, functioning in many important cellular processes. Previous studies demonstrated a role of farnesylation in BR biosynthesis via regulating the endoplasmic reticulum localization of a key bassinolide (BL) biosynthetic enzyme BR6ox2. Whether such a process is also involved in BR signaling is not understood. Here, we demonstrate that protein farnesylation is involved in mediating BR signaling in Arabidopsis. A loss-of-function mutant of ENHANCED RESPONSE TO ABA 1 (ERA1), encoding a β subunit of the protein farnesyl transferase holoenzyme, can alter the BL sensitivity of bak1-4 from a reduced to a hypersensitive level. era1 can partially rescue the BR defective phenotype of a heterozygous mutant of bin2-1, a gain-of-function mutant of BIN2 which encodes a negative regulator in the BR signaling. Our genetic and biochemical analyses revealed that ERA1 plays a significant role in regulating the protein stability of BES1.

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