The Small G Protein AtRAN1 Regulates Vegetative Growth and Stress Tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana.
The evolutionarily conserved small G-protein Ran plays important role in nuclear translocation of proteins, cell cycle regulation, and nuclear envelope maintenance in mammalian cells and yeast. Arabidopsis Ran proteins are encoded by a family of four genes and are highly conserved at the protein level. However, their biological functions are poorly understood. We report here that AtRAN1 plays an important role in vegetative growth and the molecular improvement of stress tolerance in Arabidopsis. AtRAN1 overexpression promoted vegetative growth and enhanced abiotic tolerance, while the atran1 atran3 double mutant showed higher freezing sensitivity than WT. The AtRAN1 gene is ubiquitously expressed in plants, and the expression levels are higher in the buds, flowers and siliques. Subcellular localization results showed that AtRAN1 is mainly localized in the nucleus, with some present in the cytoplasm. AtRAN1 could maintain cell division and cell cycle progression and promote the formation of an intact nuclear envelope, especially under freezing conditions.
Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 300 Fenglin Rd, Shanghai 200032, China.
Peipei
P
Xu
Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 300 Fenglin Rd, Shanghai 200032, China.
Aiping
A
Zang
Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 300 Fenglin Rd, Shanghai 200032, China.
Haiying
H
Chen
Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 300 Fenglin Rd, Shanghai 200032, China.
Weiming
W
Cai
D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism*; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000378:metabolism; D005615:Freezing; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified; D055049:Salt Tolerance / Q000502:physiology; D013312:Stress, Physiological / Q000502:physiology*; D020931:ran GTP-Binding Protein / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
D020931:ran GTP-Binding Protein