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Letter
Nature 437, 741-745 (29 September 2005) | doi:10.1038/nature03973; Received 11 January 2005; Accepted 1 July 2005
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Postdoctoral Fellowship
- Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute
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Behavioural Pharmacologist
- Eisai London Research Laboratories Ltd
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Ca2+/calmodulin is critical for brassinosteroid biosynthesis and plant growth
- Center for Integrated Biotechnology and Department of Horticulture, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington 99164-6414, USA
Correspondence to: B. W. Poovaiah1 Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to B.W.P. (Email: poovaiah@wsu.edu).
Abstract
Brassinosteroids are plant-specific steroid hormones1, 2 that have an important role in coupling environmental factors, especially light, with plant growth and development3. How the endogenous brassinosteroids change in response to environmental stimuli is largely unknown. Ca2+/calmodulin has an essential role in sensing and transducing environmental stimuli4, 5. Arabidopsis DWARF1 (DWF1) is responsible for an early step in brassinosteroid biosynthesis that converts 24-methylenecholesterol to campesterol6, 7. Here we show that DWF1 is a Ca2+/calmodulin-binding protein and this binding is critical for its function. Molecular genetic analysis using site-directed and deletion mutants revealed that loss of calmodulin binding completely abolished the function of DWF1 in planta, whereas partial loss of calmodulin binding resulted in a partial dwarf phenotype in complementation studies. These results provide direct proof that Ca2+/calmodulin-mediated signalling has a critical role in controlling the function of DWF1. Furthermore, we observed that DWF1 orthologues from other plants have a similar Ca2+/calmodulin-binding domain, implying that Ca2+/calmodulin regulation of DWF1 and its homologues is common in plants. These results raise the possibility of producing size-engineered crops by altering the Ca2+/calmodulin-binding property of their DWF1 orthologues.
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