title: Auxin perception--structural insights.
abstract: The identity of the auxin receptor(s) and the mechanism of auxin perception has been a subject of intense interest since the discovery of auxin almost a century ago. The development of genetic approaches to the study of plant hormone signaling led to the discovery that auxin acts by promoting degradation of transcriptional repressors called Aux/IAA proteins. This process requires a ubiquitin protein ligase (E3) called SCF(TIR1) and related SCF complexes. Surprisingly, auxin works by directly binding to TIR1, the F-box protein subunit of this SCF. Structural studies demonstrate that auxin acts like a "molecular glue," to stabilize the interaction between TIR1 and the Aux/IAA substrate. These exciting results solve an old problem in plant biology and reveal new mechanisms for E3 regulation and hormone perception.
authors.affiliation: Section of Cell and Developmental Biology, UCSD, La Jolla, California 92093, USA.
authors.forename: Luz Irina
authors.initials: LI
authors.lastname: Calderon-Villalobos
authors.forename: Xu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.forename: Ning
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Estelle
mesh_terms: D006868:Hydrolysis; D007210:Indoleacetic Acids / Q000378:metabolism*; D015398:Signal Transduction
chemical_list: D007210:Indoleacetic Acids