黑料吃瓜资源

Understanding how plants process light is key to . Light helps plants know when to grow and flower at the right time. Plants find light using proteins called photoreceptors. 黑料吃瓜资源 (CSHL) Assistant Professor Ullas Pedmale鈥檚 team uncovered how proteins called UBP12 and UBP13 help regulate a photoreceptor called CRY2. Their discovery might reveal new ways to control growth鈥攚hich could have broad applications beyond agriculture.

CRY photoreceptors are common to plants and humans. They are linked to human diseases including cancer, diabetes, and several brain disorders. CRY2 helps control growth in both humans and plants. While unchecked growth in plants makes them less viable, unchecked growth in humans causes cancer. 鈥淚f we understand growth,鈥� Pedmale says, 鈥渨e can cure cancer.鈥�

Plants need the right amount of CRY2 to know when to grow and flower. Pedmale and former postdoctoral fellow Louise Lindb盲ck discovered that manipulating UBP12 and UBP13 can change the amount of CRY2 in plants. They found that increasing UBP12 and UBP13 reduces CRY2 levels. This made plants think there wasn鈥檛 enough light. In response, they grew longer, abnormal stems to reach more. Pedmale says:

鈥淲e have a way to understand growth here鈥攁nd we could manipulate growth just by manipulating two proteins. We have found a way we can actually increase flower output. You need flowering for food. If there’s no flower, there is no grain, no rice, no wheat, no maize.鈥�

Pedmale and Lindb盲ck didn鈥檛 know exactly how UBP12 and UBP13 regulated CRY2. When the researchers took a closer look, they made a surprising discovery. In humans and other organisms, versions of UBP12 and UBP13 protect CRY photoreceptors from degradation. But in plants, the team saw the opposite. UBP12 and UBP13 were actually helping degrade CRY2 instead. Lindb盲ck, who is currently a research and developmental engineer at Nordic Biomarker in Sweden, explains:

鈥淔rom literature, it’s known that if you find an interaction like this, it will protect from degradation. Initially, we saw the opposite, and we thought, 鈥榦kay, maybe I did something wrong,鈥� but then when I did it a few times, we realized, 鈥榦kay, this is true.鈥� Instead of protecting CRY2, it causes CRY2 to degrade.鈥�

Pedmale hopes their discovery will help plant researchers and plant breeders improve crop yields. He also hopes his work helps inform cancer research. 鈥淢y colleagues at CSHL are working hard trying to understand cancer,鈥� he says. 鈥淲e are coming at it from a different angle with plants.鈥�

Written by: Nick Wurm, Communications Specialist | [email protected] | 516-367-5940

Funding

National Institutes of Health

Citation

Lindb盲ck, Louise, et al., 鈥淯BP12 and UBP13 deubiquitinases destabilize the CRY2 blue light receptor to regulate Arabidopsis growth鈥�, Current Biology, June 13, 2022. DOI number: