Inhibition of the plant cytokinin transduction pathway by bacterial histidine kinase inhibitors in Catharanthus roseus cell cultures

FEBS Lett. 2003 Feb 27;537(1-3):101-5. doi: 10.1016/s0014-5793(03)00102-9.

Abstract

We describe the isolation of two Catharanthus roseus cDNAs encoding proteins putatively involved in the final steps of a 'histidine-to-aspartate' phosphorelay in cytokinin (CK) signaling. The expression of one of these genes, CrRR1, was specifically up-regulated by CKs in C. roseus cell suspensions. We used this system as a biological model to test the activity of bacterial histidine kinase inhibitors. Our data demonstrate that these inhibitors are active on the CK transduction pathway and represent powerful chemical tools to study hormone signal transduction in plants. Moreover, these data suggest a strong conservation of functional features between prokaryotic and plant signaling pathways utilizing histidine kinases.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Arabidopsis / genetics
  • Bacteria / enzymology*
  • Catharanthus / genetics
  • Catharanthus / physiology*
  • Cloning, Molecular
  • Cytokinins / antagonists & inhibitors
  • Cytokinins / chemistry
  • Cytokinins / genetics*
  • DNA, Complementary
  • Enzyme Inhibitors / pharmacology*
  • Histidine Kinase
  • Kinetics
  • Models, Biological
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Plant Proteins / antagonists & inhibitors
  • Plant Proteins / chemistry
  • Plant Proteins / genetics
  • Protein Kinase Inhibitors*
  • Protein Kinases*
  • Sequence Alignment
  • Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
  • Signal Transduction / drug effects
  • Signal Transduction / physiology*

Substances

  • Cytokinins
  • DNA, Complementary
  • Enzyme Inhibitors
  • Plant Proteins
  • Protein Kinase Inhibitors
  • Protein Kinases
  • Histidine Kinase