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Coordination of auxin and ethylene biosynthesis by the aminotransferase VAS1

Nature Chemical Biology volume 9, pages 244–246 (2013)Cite this article

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Abstract

We identify an Arabidopsis pyridoxal-phosphate–dependent aminotransferase, VAS1, whose loss-of-function simultaneously increases amounts of the phytohormone auxin and the ethylene precursor 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate. VAS1 uses the ethylene biosynthetic intermediate methionine as an amino donor and the auxin biosynthetic intermediate indole-3-pyruvic acid as an amino acceptor to produce L-tryptophan and 2-oxo-4-methylthiobutyric acid. Our data indicate that VAS1 serves key roles in coordinating the amounts of these two vital hormones.

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Figure 1: VAS1 functions in auxin metabolism, downstream of TAA1/SAV3 but upstream of YUCs.
Figure 2: VAS1 encodes a methionine-specific aminotransferase and model for VAS1 metabolic regulation of auxin and ethylene biosynthesis.
Figure 3: Increased ACC in vas1 mutants leads to exaggerated petiole elongation.

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Acknowledgements

We thank W. Chen for technical assistance and the Arabidopsis Biological Resource Center for mutant seeds. These studies were supported by US National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant 5R01GM52413 to J.C., the Internal Grant Agency of Palacký University (PrF_2012_016) and the Grant Agency of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (KAN200380801) to O.N., the Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems and the Swedish Research Council (K.L.), NIH grant R01GM68631 to Y.Z., the National Science Foundation under award nos. EEC-0813570 and MCB-0645794 to J.P.N. and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (Z.Z., J.P.N., J.C.).

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Author notes

  1. Zuyu Zheng and Yongxia Guo: These authors contributed equally to this manuscript.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, California, USA

    Zuyu Zheng, Joseph P Noel & Joanne Chory

  2. Plant Biology Laboratory, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, California, USA

    Zuyu Zheng & Joanne Chory

  3. Jack H. Skirball Center for Chemical Biology and Proteomics, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, California, USA

    Yongxia Guo & Joseph P Noel

  4. Department of Forest Genetics and Plant Physiology, Umeå Plant Science Centre, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Umeå, Sweden

    Ondřej Novák & Karin Ljung

  5. Laboratory of Growth Regulators, Faculty of Science, Palacký University, Olomouc, Czech Republic

    Ondřej Novák

  6. Institute of Experimental Botany, Academy of Science of Czech Republic, Olomouc, Czech Republic

    Ondřej Novák & Ondřej Novák

  7. Section of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of California–San Diego, La Jolla, California

    Xinhua Dai & Yunde Zhao

Authors
  1. Zuyu Zheng
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  7. Joseph P Noel
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Contributions

Z.Z. and Y.G. designed research, performed research, analyzed data and wrote the paper. O.N. and K.L. measured the amount of IAA and 3-IPA and analyzed data. X.D. and Y.Z. provided yuc1-163 yuc4 seeds. J.P.N. and J.C. designed research, analyzed data and wrote the paper.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Joseph P Noel or Joanne Chory.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Zheng, Z., Guo, Y., Novák, O. et al. Coordination of auxin and ethylene biosynthesis by the aminotransferase VAS1. Nat Chem Biol 9, 244–246 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio.1178

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