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Analysis of the role of plant SCAR/WAVE and ABI in signalling to the actin cytoskeleton

Reference	BB/C516601/1
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor P Hussey
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors	Professor Robert Insall, Professor Laura Machesky
Institution	Durham University
Department	Biological and Biomedical Sciences
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	229,733
Status	Completed
Type	Research Grant
Start date	01/05/2005
End date	31/08/2008
Duration	40 months

Abstract

One of the most unique features of plant cells is that they do not move so the development of tissues and organs is dependent on the balance of cell division, cell expansion and the positioning of the new crosswalls in cytokinesis. The plant cytoskeleton governs this plant cell morphogenesis. A major component of the plant cytoskeleton is the filamentous actin-network. This actin network is stimulus responsive being affected by internal stimuli (developmental cues) and external stimuli (biotic and abiotic stresses). Both internal and external stimuli can cause local reorganisations of the actin network and they act through signal transduction pathways. Normally responsible for actin organisation in lammellipodia formation which drives cell motility in animal cells, we have found that components of the SCAR/WAVE complex that activates Arp2/3 directed actin filament nucleation are present in plants. However, the sequences of the two stimulus responsive central components, SCAR and its interacting partner ABI, are not well conserved with their animal counterparts and do not have all the sequences/domains that place them centrally in signal transduction cascades in animals. Instead they have plant specific sequences which has led us to propose that plants have evolved other/additional methods of controlling SCAR/WAVE mediated activation of the Arp2/3 complex. We reported a similar scenario recently for the control of the plant stimulus responsive actin depolymerising factor (ADF) which we found to be regulated in plant signalling pathways (see Part 1: previous track record). We aim to identify the effectors of plant ABI and SCAR by searching for interacting proteins and examining the role of these proteins in vivo, by the analysis of mutants (insertion mutants or inducible RNAi lines) and in vitro, by analysis of their effects on the activation of the arp2/3 complex by SCAR proteins. The goal of this work is to understand how actin nucleation is coordinated by the Arp2/3 complex through SCAR and ABI and identify the signalling networks that are responsible for this control in plants.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Closed Committee - Biochemistry & Cell Biology (BCB)
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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