| Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017380 | Plant Science | 2012 | 9 Pages |
Abscisic acid (ABA) plays an essential function in plant physiology since it is required for biotic and abiotic stress responses as well as control of plant growth and development. A new family of soluble ABA receptors, named PYR/PYL/RCAR, has emerged as ABA sensors able to inhibit the activity of specific protein phosphatases type-2C (PP2Cs) in an ABA-dependent manner. The structural and functional mechanism by which ABA is perceived by these receptors and consequently leads to inhibition of the PP2Cs has been recently elucidated. The module PYR/PYL/RCAR-ABA-PP2C offers an elegant and unprecedented mechanism to control phosphorylation signaling cascades in a ligand-dependent manner. The knowledge of their three-dimensional structures paves the way to the design of ABA agonists able to modulate the plant stress response.
Research highlights▶ Plants have a family of 14 intracellular ABA receptors, named PYR/PYL/RCAR. ▶ These receptors are able to inhibit the activity of clade A PP2Cs in an ABA-dependent manner. ▶ The structures of three receptors, PYR1, PYL1 and PYL2, and two receptor-ABA-phosphatase complexes, PYL1-ABI1 and PYL2-HAB1, have been elucidated. ▶ The gain-of-function mutations abi1G180D, abi2G168D and hab1G246D are immune to receptor-mediated inhibition.
