TOR signaling in Arabidopsis thaliana

G.L. SALERNO; G. MARTINEZ NOËL

Mar del Plata

Congreso; LI Reunión Anual Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Bioquímica y Biología Molecular (SAIB 2015); 2015

Sociedad Argentina de Investigación Bioquímica

Target of rapamycin (TOR)kinase is an evolutionarily conserved master regulator that integrates energy,nutrients, growth factors and external signals to promote survival and growthin eukaryotes. The knowledge of TOR signaling in plants has been hamperedbecause of the embryo lethality of the Arabidopsisthaliana tor mutants. The controversial resistanceto rapamycin, a TOR inhibitor in other organisms, limits the moleculardissection of the TOR pathway in plants. Thus, we analyzed the effect ofsecond generation inhibitors, such as PP242, in Arabidopsis plants. Unlikerapamycin, PP242 is a selective inhibitor that targets ATP domain of TOR. We grew plants in mediawith 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 ofTOR, carbon and nitrogen signaling were modified by the presence of theinhibitor. Thus, the PP242 inhibitor could be a useful tool to investigate TORsignaling. This work was supported by CONICET,ANPCyT, UNMdP and FIBA.