Mechanisms of Feronia-dependent growth control
Abstract
Cell wall sensing and its feedback on intracellular processes are crucial for the coordination of cellular expansion. Despite its fundamental importance, very little is currently known about these integrative mechanisms in plants. The vacuole increases its cellular occupancy during cellular expansion, which allows fast plant cell elongation with relatively little increase in cytosol. We show that interference with the cell wall status impacts on intracellular expansion of the vacuole. Our work reveals that the extracellular cell wall binding proteins of the Leucine-Rich Repeat Extensin (LRX) family interact with the receptor like kinase Feronia (FER), which is crucial to repress vacuolar expansion in the root meristematic zone. Here we aim to characterise the mechanistic interaction of LRX and Feronia as well as its importance for integrating growth relevant processes. To approach how the external signals are translated into an internal growth controlling signal, we will investigate upstream and downstream components of FER signalling and their potential impact on vacuolar expansion. The LRX/FER complex may also influence the scaffold function of FER for plant immunity, prompting us to investigate whether LRX proteins modulate immune responses. Finally, we aim to characterise novel, putative interactors of FER, presumably linking FER signaling with intracellular growth process, such as the regulation of vacuolar size. Our work will provide fundamental insight into FER-dependent growth integration and may reveal mechanisms that will allow us to engineer plant growth and/or immune responses in a tissue specific manner.
Publikationen
Project staff
Jürgen Kleine-Vehn
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Jürgen Kleine-Vehn
juergen.kleine-vehn@boku.ac.at
Project Leader
01.01.2020 - 22.10.2024
Kai Alexander Dünser
Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Kai Alexander Dünser
kai.duenser@boku.ac.at
Project Staff
01.06.2020 - 31.12.2023