Plant Genes on Steroids

摘要

Plants, like animals, use steroid hormones to regulate their development through changes in the expression of target genes. However, the molecules used by plant cells to perceive and respond to the steroid signal are different from those used by animals. In animal cells, nuclear receptors generally bind to steroid hormones and directly regulate target gene expression. Bycontrast, rn plants the steroid hormone is bound by a receptor at the cell surface. The resultant signal is then transmitted through a chain of events that include dephosphorylation of regulatory proteins and their accumulation in the nucleus. Exactly how these events are translated into changes in gene expression was, until recently, unknown. The link in the plant steroid signaling chain now is revealed by He and colleagues on page 1634 of this issue (7) and by Yin and co-workers in a recent issue of Cell (2).