TOR signaling in Arabidopsis thaliana

SALERNO G; MARTÍNEZ NOËL G

Buenos Aires

Congreso; XLVIII Reunión Anual Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Bioquímica y Biología Molecular, SAIB 2013; 2013

Target of rapamycin (TOR) kinase is an evolutionarily conserved master regulator that integrates energy, nutrients, growth factors and external signals to promote survival and growth in eukaryotes. The knowledge of TOR signaling in plants has been hampered because of the embryo lethality of the Arabidopsis thaliana tor mutants. The controversial resistance to rapamycin, a TOR inhibitor in other organisms, limits the molecular dissection of the TOR pathway in plants. Thus, we analyzed the effect of second generation inhibitors, such as PP242, in Arabidopsis plants. Unlike rapamycin, PP242 is a selective inhibitor that targets ATP domain of TOR. We grew plants in media with different carbon/nitrogen balance and PP242 concentrations. The inhibitor was able to delay germination and affected growth plants. Particularly, root size was severely reduced. Moreover, we show that the synthesis of anthocyanins and the expression of key genes of TOR, carbon and nitrogen signaling were modified by the presence of the inhibitor. Thus, the PP242 inhibitor could be a useful tool to investigate TOR signaling. This work was supported by CONICET, ANPCyT, UNMdP and FIBA.