title: Tomato FK506 Binding Protein 12KD (FKBP12) Mediates the Interaction between Rapamycin and Target of Rapamycin (TOR).
abstract: Target of Rapamycin (TOR) signaling is an important regulator in multiple organisms including yeast, plants, and animals. However, the TOR signaling in plants is much less understood as compared to that in yeast and animals. TOR kinase can be efficiently suppressed by rapamycin in the presence of functional FK506 Binding Protein 12 KD (FKBP12) in yeast and animals. In most examined higher plants rapamycin fails to inhibit TOR kinase due to the non-functional FKBP12. Here we find that tomato plants showed obvious growth inhibition when treated with rapamycin and the inhibitory phenotype is similar to suppression of TOR causing by active-site TOR inhibitors (asTORis) such as KU63794, AZD8055, and Torin1. The chemical genetic assays using TOR inhibitors and heterologous expressing SlFKBP12 inArabidopsisindicated that the TOR signaling is functional in tomato. The protein gel shifting and TOR inhibitors combination assays showed that SlFKBP12 can mediate the interaction between rapamycin and TOR. Furthermore, comparative expression profile analysis between treatments with rapamycin and KU63794 identified highly overlapped Differentially Expressed Genes (DEGs) which are involved in many anabolic and catabolic processes, such as photosynthesis, cell wall restructuring, and senescence in tomato. These observations suggest that SlFFBP12 is functional in tomato. The results provided basic information of TOR signaling in tomato, and also some new insights into how TOR controls plant growth and development through reprogramming the transcription profiles.
authors.affiliation: School of Life Sciences, Chongqing University Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Fangjie
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Xiong
authors.affiliation: School of Life Sciences, Chongqing University Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Pan
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.affiliation: School of Life Sciences, Chongqing University Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Mei
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Center of Space Exploration, Ministry of Education Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Gengxin
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.affiliation: School of Life Sciences, Chongqing University Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Kai
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: School of Life Sciences, Chongqing University Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Fengping
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Zhuo
authors.affiliation: School of Life Sciences, Chongqing University Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.affiliation: School of Life Sciences, Chongqing University Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Lu
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: School of Life Sciences, Chongqing University Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Zhengguo
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: School of Life Sciences, Chongqing UniversityChongqing, China; Center of Space Exploration, Ministry of EducationChongqing, China.
authors.forename: Maozhi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ren
keywords: KU63794; SlFKBP12; gene expression profile; rapamycin; target of rapamycin; tomato