This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Supplemental Data All Versions of this Article: 148/1/611    most recent pp.108.123216v1 Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Web of Science (6) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Albrecht, C. Articles by de Vries, S. C. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Albrecht, C. Articles by de Vries, S. C. Agricola Articles by Albrecht, C. Articles by de Vries, S. C. Related Collections Membrane Trafficking

CELL BIOLOGY AND SIGNAL TRANSDUCTION

Arabidopsis SOMATIC EMBRYOGENESIS RECEPTOR KINASE Proteins Serve Brassinosteroid-Dependent and -Independent Signaling Pathways^1,[C],[W]

Laboratory of Biochemistry, Wageningen University, 6703 HA Wageningen, The Netherlands (C.A., E.R., M.K., S.C.d.V.); and Department of Plant Biochemistry, Centre for Plant Molecular Biology, University of Tübingen, 72076 Tübingen, Germany (B.K.)

The Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) SOMATIC EMBRYOGENESIS RECEPTOR KINASE (SERK) genes belong to a small family of five plant receptor kinases that are involved in at least five different signaling pathways. One member of this family, BRASSINOSTEROID INSENSITIVE1 (BRI1)-ASSOCIATED KINASE1 (BAK1), also known as SERK3, is the coreceptor of the brassinolide (BR)-perceiving receptor BRI1, a function that is BR dependent and partially redundant with SERK1. BAK1 (SERK3) alone controls plant innate immunity, is also the coreceptor of the flagellin receptor FLS2, and, together with SERK4, can mediate cell death control, all three in a BR-independent fashion. SERK1 and SERK2 are essential for male microsporogenesis, again independent from BR. SERK5 does not appear to have any function under the conditions tested. Here, we show that the different SERK members are only redundant in pairs, whereas higher order mutant combinations only show additive phenotypes. Surprisingly, SERK members that are redundant within one are not redundant in another pathway. We also show that this evolution of functional pairs occurred by a change in protein function and not by differences in spatial expression. We propose that, in plants, closely related receptor kinases have a minimal homo- or heterodimeric configuration to achieve specificity.

² These authors contributed equally to the article.

³ Present address: VIB Department of Plant Systems Biology, Ghent University, Technologiepark 927, 9052 Ghent, Belgium.

⁴ Present address: Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, Department for Plant-Microbe Interactions, Carl van Linne weg 10, 50829 Cologne, Germany.

The author responsible for distribution of materials integral to the findings presented in this article in accordance with the policy described in the Instructions for Authors (www.plantphysiol.org) is: Catherine Albrecht (catherine.albrecht{at}wur.nl).

^[C] Some figures in this article are displayed in color online but in black and white in the print edition.

^[W] The online version of this article contains Web-only data.

www.plantphysiol.org/cgi/doi/10.1104/pp.108.123216

^* Corresponding author; e-mail catherine.albrecht{at}wur.nl.

Received May 22, 2008; accepted July 22, 2008; published July 30, 2008.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				K. E. Nolan, S. Kurdyukov, and R. J. Rose Expression of the SOMATIC EMBRYOGENESIS RECEPTOR-LIKE KINASE1 (SERK1) gene is associated with developmental change in the life cycle of the model legume Medicago truncatula J. Exp. Bot., April 1, 2009; 60(6): 1759 - 1771. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]