title: Roles of OsCKI1, a rice casein kinase I, in root development and plant hormone sensitivity.
abstract: Casein kinases are critical in cell division and differentiation across species. A rice cDNA fragment encoding a putative casein kinase I (CKI) was identified via cDNA macroarray under brassinosteroid (BR) treatment, and a 1939-bp full-length cDNA, OsCKI1, was isolated and found to encode a putative 463-aa protein. RT-PCR and Northern blot analysis indicated that OsCKI1 was constitutively expressed in various rice tissues and upregulated by treatments with BR and abscisic acid (ABA). Enzymatic assay of recombinant OsCKI1 proteins expressed in Escherichia coli showed that the protein was capable of phosphorylating casein. The physiological roles of OsCKI1 were studied through antisense transgenic approaches, and homozygous transgenic plants showed abnormal root development, including fewer lateral and adventitious roots, and shortened primary roots as a result of reduced cell elongation. Treatment of wild-type plants with CKI-7, a specific inhibitor of CKI, also confirmed these functions of OsCKI1. Interestingly, in transgenic and CKI-7-treated plants, exogenously supplied IAA could restore normal root development, and measurement of free IAA content in CKI-deficient primary and adventitious roots revealed altered auxin content, indicating that OsCKI1 is involved in auxin metabolism or that it may affect auxin levels. Transgenic plants were less sensitive than control plants to ABA or BR treatment during germination, suggesting that OsCKI1 may be involved in various hormone-signaling pathways. OsCKI1-GFP fusion studies revealed the localization of OsCKI1 to the nucleus, suggesting a possible involvement in regulation of gene expression. In OsCKI1-deficient plants, differential gene expression was investigated using cDNA chip technology, and results indicated that genes related to signal transduction and hormone metabolism were indeed with altered expression.
authors.affiliation: National Laboratory of Plant Molecular Genetics, Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Zhi-Hong
authors.initials: ZH
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Da
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.forename: Hong-Wei
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Xue
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins; D001483:Base Sequence; D047388:Casein Kinases; D017931:DNA Primers; D017353:Gene Deletion; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D012275:Oryza / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000254:growth & development; D010937:Plant Growth Regulators / Q000494:pharmacology*; D018517:Plant Roots / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000254:growth & development; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011494:Protein Kinases / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
chemical_list: D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins; D017931:DNA Primers; D010937:Plant Growth Regulators; D011494:Protein Kinases; D047388:Casein Kinases; C101990:CKI1 protein, Arabidopsis