Regulating Plant Steroids

Plant hormones include small peptides, complex chemicals, and steroids known as brassinosteroids. Brassinosteroids regulate, among other aspects, the plant's response to light conditions, its growth habit, and flowering patterns. The signaling pathways controlled by brassinosteroids are likely to be complex and highly branched. Li et al. have cloned and analyzed the BIN2 gene, which encodes a protein that resembles the SHAGGY-type kinases well known for controlling a variety of metabolic pathways in Drosophila, yeast, and mammalian cells. The BIN2 protein product function seemingly early in the brassinosteroid signaling response pathway, but just how closely linked its function is to the initial response of brassinosteroid and its receptor remains unclear. J. Li, K. H. Nam, Regulation of brassinosteroid signaling by a GSK3/SHAGGY-like kinase. Science 295, 1299-1301 (2002). [Abstract] [Full Text]