Editor's Summary
26 May 2005
One for the textbooks
In 1880, Charles and Frances Darwin published The Power of Movement in Plants, describing how a mobile signal controls bending of shoots towards light. This was identified during the 1920s as the plant hormone auxin, a regulator of most aspects of plant growth. Auxin has long been a fixture in the textbooks, so you might be surprised to learn that until now the identity of the auxin receptor has been unknown. Two groups working independently have now identified the Arabidopsis F-box protein, TIR1, as an auxin receptor. F-box proteins act in eukaryotes to target regulatory proteins for degradation in a signal-dependent manner.
News and Views: Plant biology: Auxin action
Farmers and gardeners have long taken advantage of the growth-altering properties of the plant hormone auxin. The discovery of the elusive auxin receptor hints at how plant cells 'sense' and respond to this protein.
Judy Callis
doi: 10.1038/435436b