Is kinase activity essential for biological functions of BRI1?

• 来源期刊: 细胞研究（英文版）
• 年，卷（期）: 2008,（4）
• 页码范围: 472-478
• 页数: 7页
• 语种: 英文

摘要

Brassinosteroids (BRs) are a major group of plant hormones that regulate plant growth and development. BRI1, a protein localized to the plasma membrane, functions as a BR receptor and it has been proposed that its kinase activity has an essential role in BR-regulated plant growth and development. Here we report the isolation and molecular characterization of a new allele of bril, bril-301, which shows moderate morphological phenotypes and a reduced response to BRs under normal growth conditions. Sequence analysis identified a two-base alteration from GG to AT, resulting in a conversion of 989G to 9891 in the BRI1 kinase domain. An in vitro assay of kinase activity showed that bril-301 has no detectable autophosphorylation activity or phosphorylation activity towards the BRI1 substrates TTL and BAK1. Furthermore, our results suggest that bril-301, even with extremely impaired kinase activity, still retains partial function in regulating plant growth and development, which raises the question of whether BRI1 kinase activity is essential for BR-mediated growth and development in higher plants.