SPINDLY, a Tetratricopeptide Repeat Protein Involved in Gibberellin Signal Transduction in Arabidopsis

Gibberellins (GAs) are a major class of plant hormones that control many developmental processes, including seed development and germination, flower and fruit development, and flowering time. Genetic studies with Arabidopsis thaliana have identified two genes involved in GA perception or signal tran...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 1996-08, Vol.93 (17), p.9292-9296
Main Authors: Jacobsen, Steven E., Binkowski, Kalli A., Olszewski, Neil E.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Alleles
Amino Acid Sequence
Amino acids
Arabidopsis - anatomy & histology
Arabidopsis - genetics
Arabidopsis Proteins
Arabidopsis thaliana
Cloning, Molecular
Complementary DNA
Exons
Genes, Plant
Genetic mutation
Gibberellins - metabolism
Molecular Sequence Data
Mutation
Phenotype
Phenotypes
Plant Proteins - genetics
Plants
Proteins
Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid
Repressor Proteins
Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
Signal Transduction
Space life sciences
Species Specificity
State espionage
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Summary:Gibberellins (GAs) are a major class of plant hormones that control many developmental processes, including seed development and germination, flower and fruit development, and flowering time. Genetic studies with Arabidopsis thaliana have identified two genes involved in GA perception or signal transduction. A semidominant mutation at the GIBBERELLIN INSENSITIVE (GAI) locus results in plants resembling GA-deficient mutants but exhibiting reduced sensitivity to GA. Recessive mutations at the SPINDLY (SPY) locus cause a phenotype that is consistent with constitutive activation of GA signal transduction. Here we show that a strong allele of spy is completely epistatic to gai, indicating that SPY acts downstream of GAI. We have cloned the SPY gene and shown that it encodes a new type of signal transduction protein, which contains a tetratricopeptide repeat region, likely serving as a protein interaction domain, and a novel C-terminal region. Mutations in both domains increase GA signal transduction. The presence of a similar gene in Caenorhabditis elegans suggests that SPY represents a class of signal transduction proteins that is present throughout the eukaryotes.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.93.17.9292