title: KEEP ON GOING, a RING E3 ligase essential for Arabidopsis growth and development, is involved in abscisic acid signaling.
abstract: Analysis of the Arabidopsis thaliana RING-ANK (for Really Interesting New Gene-Ankyrin) family, a subgroup of RING-type E3 ligases, identified KEEP ON GOING (KEG) as essential for growth and development. In addition to the RING-HCa and ankyrin repeats, KEG contains a kinase domain and 12 HERC2-like repeats. The RING-HCa and kinase domains were functional in in vitro ubiquitylation and phosphorylation assays, respectively. Seedlings homozygous for T-DNA insertions in KEG undergo growth arrest immediately after germination, suggestive of increased abscisic acid (ABA) signaling, a major phytohormone that plays a key role in plant development and survival under unfavorable conditions. Here, we show that KEG is a negative regulator of ABA signaling. keg roots are extremely sensitive to the inhibitory effects of ABA and exhibit hypersensitivity to exogenous glucose, consistent with the known interaction between glucose and ABA signaling. The observations that KEG accumulates high levels of ABSCISIC ACID-INSENSITIVE5 (ABI5) without exogenous ABA, interacts with ABI5 in vitro, and that loss of ABI5 rescues the growth-arrest phenotype of keg mutant seedlings indicate that KEG is required for ABI5 degradation. In this capacity, KEG is central to ABA signaling by maintaining low levels of ABI5 in the absence of stress.
authors.affiliation: Section of Molecular and Cellular Biology, College of Biological Sciences, University of California, Davis, California 95616, USA.
authors.forename: Sophia L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Stone
authors.forename: Luis A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.forename: Lisa M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Farmer
authors.forename: Richard D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Vierstra
authors.forename: Judy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Callis
mesh_terms: D000040:Abscisic Acid / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000494:pharmacology; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D017487:Ankyrins / Q000378:metabolism; D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000187:drug effects / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development*; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D050976:Basic-Leucine Zipper Transcription Factors / Q000378:metabolism; D002241:Carbohydrates / Q000494:pharmacology; D003624:Darkness; D005030:Ethylenes / Q000494:pharmacology; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant / Q000187:drug effects; D018525:Germination / Q000187:drug effects; D008954:Models, Biological; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009154:Mutation / Q000235:genetics; D010641:Phenotype; D010766:Phosphorylation / Q000187:drug effects; D011485:Protein Binding / Q000187:drug effects; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D036226:Seedlings / Q000201:enzymology / Q000254:growth & development; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000187:drug effects; D025801:Ubiquitin / Q000378:metabolism; D044767:Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: C409743:ABI5 protein, Arabidopsis; D017487:Ankyrins; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins; D050976:Basic-Leucine Zipper Transcription Factors; D002241:Carbohydrates; D005030:Ethylenes; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D025801:Ubiquitin; D000040:Abscisic Acid; C036216:ethylene; C518495:KEG protein, Arabidopsis; D044767:Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases