title: FERONIA interacts with ABI2-type phosphatases to facilitate signaling cross-talk between abscisic acid and RALF peptide in Arabidopsis.
abstract: Receptor-like kinase FERONIA (FER) plays a crucial role in plant response to small molecule hormones [e.g., auxin and abscisic acid (ABA)] and peptide signals [e.g., rapid alkalinization factor (RALF)]. It remains unknown how FER integrates these different signaling events in the control of cell growth and stress responses. Under stress conditions, increased levels of ABA will inhibit cell elongation in the roots. In our previous work, we have shown that FER, through activation of the guanine nucleotide exchange factor 1 (GEF1)/4/10-Rho of Plant 11 (ROP11) pathway, enhances the activity of the phosphatase ABA Insensitive 2 (ABI2), a negative regulator of ABA signaling, thereby inhibiting ABA response. In this study, we found that both RALF and ABA activated FER by increasing the phosphorylation level of FER. The FER loss-of-function mutant displayed strong hypersensitivity to both ABA and abiotic stresses such as salt and cold conditions, indicating that FER plays a key role in ABA and stress responses. We further showed that ABI2 directly interacted with and dephosphorylated FER, leading to inhibition of FER activity. Several other ABI2-like phosphatases also function in this pathway, and ABA-dependent FER activation required PYRABACTIN RESISTANCE (PYR)/PYR1-LIKE (PYL)/REGULATORY COMPONENTS OF ABA RECEPTORS (RCAR)-A-type protein phosphatase type 2C (PP2CA) modules. Furthermore, suppression of RALF1 gene expression, similar to disruption of the FER gene, rendered plants hypersensitive to ABA. These results formulated a mechanism for ABA activation of FER and for cross-talk between ABA and peptide hormone RALF in the control of plant growth and responses to stress signals.
authors: Hunan Province Key Laboratory of Plant Functional Genomics and Developmental Regulation, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, People's Republic of China; College of Life Sciences, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, People's Republic of China;
authors: Jia
authors: J
authors: Chen
authors: Hunan Province Key Laboratory of Plant Functional Genomics and Developmental Regulation, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, People's Republic of China; College of Life Sciences, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, People's Republic of China; sluan@berkeley.edu feng_yu@hnu.edu.cn.
authors: Feng
authors: F
authors: Yu
authors: Hunan Province Key Laboratory of Plant Functional Genomics and Developmental Regulation, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, People's Republic of China;
authors: Ying
authors: Y
authors: Liu
authors: Hunan Province Key Laboratory of Plant Functional Genomics and Developmental Regulation, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, People's Republic of China;
authors: Changqing
authors: C
authors: Du
authors: Hunan Province Key Laboratory of Plant Functional Genomics and Developmental Regulation, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, People's Republic of China;
authors: Xiushan
authors: X
authors: Li
authors: Hunan Province Key Laboratory of Plant Functional Genomics and Developmental Regulation, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, People's Republic of China;
authors: Sirui
authors: S
authors: Zhu
authors: College of Life Sciences, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, People's Republic of China;
authors: Xianchun
authors: X
authors: Wang
authors: Nanjing University-Nanjing Forestry University (NJU-NJFU) Joint Institute for Plant Molecular Biology, School of Life Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, People's Republic of China;
authors: Wenzhi
authors: W
authors: Lan
authors: Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Plantas, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas-Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, 46022 Valencia, Spain;
authors: Pedro L
authors: PL
authors: Rodriguez
authors: Hunan Province Key Laboratory of Plant Functional Genomics and Developmental Regulation, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, People's Republic of China;
authors: Xuanming
authors: X
authors: Liu
authors: College of Life Sciences, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, People's Republic of China;
authors: Dongping
authors: D
authors: Li
authors: College of Life Sciences, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, People's Republic of China;
authors: Liangbi
authors: L
authors: Chen
authors: Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720 sluan@berkeley.edu feng_yu@hnu.edu.cn.
authors: Sheng
authors: S
authors: Luan
mesh_terms: D000040:Abscisic Acid / Q000378:metabolism*; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant / Q000235:genetics; D036361:Peptide Hormones / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D010749:Phosphoprotein Phosphatases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D010766:Phosphorylation; D010770:Phosphotransferases / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D010937:Plant Growth Regulators; D018517:Plant Roots / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified; D011485:Protein Binding; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000235:genetics; D013312:Stress, Physiological / Q000235:genetics; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases
chemical_list: D000040:Abscisic Acid; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins; D036361:Peptide Hormones; D010749:Phosphoprotein Phosphatases; D010770:Phosphotransferases; D010937:Plant Growth Regulators; C529880:RALF1 protein, Arabidopsis; C522131:At3g51550 protein, Arabidopsis; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases; C106443:ABI2 protein, Arabidopsis
keywords: plant hormones; root growth; signal transduction