Structural Analysis of Ethylene (Plant Hormone) Sensor Protein

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Ethylene is a plant hormone, which is significantly involved in life cycle of plants. Ethylene exhibits its physiological activities by virtue of binding to its sensor protein, ETR1. ETR1 belongs to the two-component regulatory system in cells, and mainly consists of two functional domain, sensor domain and histidine kinase domain. Most recently, it has been found that the ETR1 sensor domain contains Cu(I). In the present project,we have been trying to obtain the direct evidence that Cu(I) is the ethylene binding site of ETR1. We constructed expression system of the recombinant protein of the ETR1 sensor domain (trans-membrane protein) in E. coli, established it purification procedure, and measured the Cu K-edge XAFS spectra. The spectra is significantly different in the presence and absence of ethylene, showing that ethylene bind to the Cu(I) sitel of ETR1 and causes its coordination structural changes.