Photoregulated Protein Kinases in Plants

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Protein kinases are ubiquitous enzymes that qare frequently involved in signal transduction processes. The major focus of the proposed work is to elucidate the roles that protein kinases may play in photoregulated leaf development in plants. A suite of partial cDNA clones from the garden pea have been sequenced and found to encode protein serine/threonine kinase homologs. Messenger RNA levels corresponding to the five cDNA clones accumulate differentially when pea seedlings are exposed to white light. Experiments are proposed to understand the photoregulated expression of these putative kinase genes at the RNA and protein level. Full-length cDNA clones will be isolated and sequenced in order to understand more fully the structure of the putative kinases. The photoreceptor system(s) controlling mRNA accumulation and gene transcription will be determined. The polypeptides encoded by the pea cDNA clones will be isolated after expression in bacteria and used to generate antibodies. The antibodies will be used to study the accumulation, distribution, and biochemical properties of the protein kinases. Transgenic tobacco plants expressing the pea cDNAs will be produced in order to understand the potential role these enzymes play in the transduction of light signals.