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Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences logoLink to Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
. 1998 Sep 29;353(1374):1425–1430. doi: 10.1098/rstb.1998.0297

Plant hormone perception and action: a role for G-protein signal transduction?

R Hooley 1
PMCID: PMC1692350  PMID: 9800205

Abstract

Plants perceive and respond to a profusion of environmental and endogenous signals that influence their growth and development. The G-protein signalling pathway is a mechanism for transducing extracellular signals that is highly conserved in a range of eukaryotes and prokaryotes. Evidence for the existence of G-protein signalling pathways in higher plants is reviewed, and their potential involvement in plant hormone signal transduction evaluated. A range of biochemical and molecular studies have identified potential components of G-protein signalling in plants, most notably a homologue of the G-protein coupled receptor superfamily (GCR1) and the G alpha and G beta subunits of heterotrimeric G-proteins. G-protein agonists and antagonists are known to influence a variety of signalling events in plants and have been used to implicate heterotrimeric G-proteins in gibberellin and possibly auxin signalling. Antisense suppression of GCR1 in Arabidopsis leads to a phenotype which supports a role for this receptor in cytokinin signalling. These observations suggest that higher plants have at least some of the components of G-protein signalling pathways and that these might be involved in the action of certain plant hormones.

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Selected References

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