Award details

Characterisation of the phot1-interacting protein AtMDR1 and its role in regulating phototropism

Reference	BB/C000366/1
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor John Christie
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors
Institution	University of Glasgow
Department	Institute of Biomedical & Life Sciences
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	269,090
Status	Completed
Type	Research Grant
Start date	01/05/2005
End date	30/04/2008
Duration	36 months

Abstract

Light and auxin play a critical role in regulating plant growth and development, including phototropism, the process by which plants grow towards the direction of light. Despite being studied for over a century, very little is known regarding the signalling events that couple photoreception to changes in auxin movement that are required to establish the curvature response. The focus of this proposal is to identify and characterise the signalling mechanisms involved in regulating phototropism in Arabidopsis thaliana. Using yeast two-hybrid screening in combination with in vitro pull down assays, we have shown that phot1, the primary photoreceptor for phototropism, interacts with AtMDR1, a protein involved in regulating auxin transport and phototropism in Arabidopsis. These findings provide a direct connection between photoreception and auxin signalling, an area of research, which has eluded scientists for almost a century. Therefore, the aim of this proposal is to further characterize the interaction between phot1 and AtMDR1 to address the role of AtMDR1 in regulating phototropism. Using a powerful combination of biochemical, molecular genetic and proteomic approaches we will: (1) Determine which regions of phot1 interact with AtMDR1 and establish whether phot1 interacts with other MDR family members/proteins involved in auxin transport. (2) Ascertain whether overexpression of the phot1/AtMDR1 interacting domains affects phototropism. (3) Demonstrate whether photoinactivation of phot1 affects its interaction with AtMDR1 and show whether AtMDR1 is a substrate for phot1 kinase activity. (4) Show that phot1 and AtMDR1 co-localize and interact in plants, and use proteomics to isolate novel phot1 interacting proteins in addition to AtMDR1.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Closed Committee - Plant & Microbial Sciences (PMS)
Research Topics	Plant Science
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	X - not in an Initiative
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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