TOR Kinase Domain Regulates Development and RNA Expression in Arabidopsis
March 11, 2011| |
Dr. Raju Datla and his team at the National Research Council Plant Biotechnology Institute (NRC-PBI) have taken a genetic approach to dissect TOR functions in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) and report that the kinase domain is essential for the role of TOR in embryogenesis and 45S rRNA expression. Eukaryotic TOR kinases are large multidomain proteins that have an essential regulatory role in diverse cellular processes and are implicated in growth, development, nutrition and stress.
Results (Maozhi et. al.1 ) show that TOR controls the embryogenesis, postembryonic development and 45S rRNA production through its kinase domain in Arabidopsis. The data presented in this paper is of importance not only for the plant field but also for animals and yeast. A recent evaluation by Faculty of 1000 Biology website stated,"We have been wondering for a long time whether some of our growth mutants might also have a problem with ribosomal RNA expression, and the reporter constructs you have used in your study would be an ideal tool to address this question."
Dr. Raju's group continues to explore the application of TOR signaling in economically important Canadian crops. They have shown over expression of TOR in model plant Arabidopsis and crop species Brassica napus transgenic lines conferred in greenhouse conditions resulted in early maturity, increased seed size, and better water use efficiency. Under field conditions, transgenic B. napus lines showed early maturity and larger seeds. They plan to explore TOR's effect with respect to abiotic stress, particularly nitrogen use efficiency in B.napus.
For more details, visit http://www.plantphysiol.org/content/155/3/1367.abstract or contact raju.datla@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca.
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