title: Progesterone: its occurrence in plants and involvement in plant growth.
abstract: Progesterone is a mammalian gonadal hormone. In the current study, we identified and quantified progesterone in a range of higher plants by using GC-MS and examined its effects on the vegetative growth of plants. The growth of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) seedlings was promoted by progesterone at low concentrations but suppressed at higher concentrations under both light and dark growth conditions. The growth of the gibberellin-deficient mutant lh of pea (Pisum sativum) was also promoted by progesterone. An earlier study demonstrated that progesterone binds to MEMBRANE STEROID BINDING PROTEIN 1 (MSBP1) of Arabidopsis. In this work, we cloned the homologous genes of Arabidopsis, MSBP2 and STEROID BINDING PROTEIN (SBP), as well as of rice (Oryza sativa), OsMSBP1, OsMSBP2 and OsSBP and examined their expression in plant tissues. All of these genes, except OsMSBP1, were expressed abundantly in plant tissues. The roles of progesterone in plant growth were also discussed.
authors.affiliation: Center for Research on Wild Plants, Utsunomiya University, Utsunomiya 321-8505, Japan.
authors.forename: Mayumi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Iino
authors.forename: Takahito
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nomura
authors.forename: Yuji
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tamaki
authors.forename: Yumiko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yamada
authors.forename: Koichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yoneyama
authors.forename: Yasutomo
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Takeuchi
authors.forename: Masaki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mori
authors.forename: Tadao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Asami
authors.forename: Takeshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nakano
authors.forename: Takao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yokota
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000378:metabolism; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D002352:Carrier Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D008401:Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D012275:Oryza / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D010802:Phylogeny; D010937:Plant Growth Regulators / Q000378:metabolism / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000502:physiology*; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D011374:Progesterone / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000502:physiology*; D036226:Seedlings / Q000187:drug effects / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism; D016415:Sequence Alignment
chemical_list: D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins; D002352:Carrier Proteins; C504785:MSBP1 protein, Arabidopsis; D010937:Plant Growth Regulators; D010940:Plant Proteins; D011374:Progesterone