title: Interaction between two rice mitogen activated protein kinases and its possible role in plant defense.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The canonical mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway plays a vital role in carrying out the normal growth and development of the plant. The pathway, connecting the upstreams signal with the downstream target is considered to be linear, mostly starting with a MAPKKK and ending in a MAPK.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Here we report a novel interaction between two rice MAPKs, OsMPK20-4 and OsMPK3 suggesting the complex nature of the pathway rather than a linear one at individual steps. The interaction between OsMPK20-4 and OsMPK3 found by yeast two-hybrid analysis was confirmed in planta by co-immunoprecipitation and fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) assays. The interaction is specific and is phosphorylation independent. The results suggest a role of the interaction between OsMPK20-4 and OsMPK3 in basic plant defense.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The current novel work showing the physical interaction between two plant MAPKs, OsMPK20-4 and OsMPK3 is the diversion from the dogma of a typical MAPK cascade thereby opening a new dimension to the MAPK signal transduction.
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Plant Genome Research, Aruna Asaf Ali Road, New Delhi 110067, India. alok@nipgr.ac.in.
authors.forename: Arsheed H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Sheikh
authors.forename: Badmi
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Raghuram
authors.forename: Siddhi K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Jalmi
authors.forename: Dhammaprakash P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Wankhede
authors.forename: Pallavi
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: Alok K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Sinha
mesh_terms: D031541:Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D020928:Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D012275:Oryza / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D010940:Plant Proteins; D020928:Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinases