RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Fighting Stress Like a Prokaryote
JF Science's STKE
JO Sci. STKE
FD American Association for the Advancement of Science
SP tw5
OP tw5
DO 10.1126/stke.2000.26.tw5
VO 2000
IS 26
YR 2000
UL http://stke.sciencemag.org/content/2000/26/tw5.abstract
AB The bacterial proteins RelA and SpoT regulate the synthesis of the guanosine tetra- and pentaphosphate [(p)ppGpp], nucleotide effectors that regulate gene expression in response to changes in nutritional and environmental conditions. Van der Biezen et al. propose that eukaryotes may respond to stress in a similar manner. A plant homologue of RelA/SpoT, called At-RSH1, was identified in a screen for proteins that interact with a plant R protein, an agent that can respond to pathogen invasion by altering cell metabolism. The authors determined that At-RSH1 has (p)ppGpp synthetase activity and could rescue synthesis in mutant bacterial strains. Hence, like prokaryotes, plants and possibly other eukaryotes may regulate gene expression in response to stress by using the same mechanism. Van der Biezen, E.A., Sun, J., Coleman, M.J., Bibb, M.J., and Jones, J.D.G. (2000) Arabidposis RelA/SpoT homologs implicate (p)ppGpp in plant signaling. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 97: 3747-3752. [Full Text] [Abstract]