05/24/2012

Understanding Plant Hormones

Summary

Plants respond to developmental cues and environmental stresses by controlling both the level and activity of various hormones. A highly adaptable scaffold
enables the evolution of promiscuous activity within the auxin-responsive GH3 enzyme family, leading to diversification of substrate specificity and evolution of metabolic control systems. Newly reported crystal structures provide a glimpse into substrate recognition and control of hormones involved in plant growth, development, and defense, enabling deeper understanding of plant metabolism intricacies. The research was conducted using resources at the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory.

References

Westfall, C. S., et al. 2012. “Structural Basis for Prereceptor Modulation of Plant Hormones by GH3 Proteins,” Science 336, 1708–11. (Reference link)