Functional and Biochemical Analysis of the GRAS Multiprotein Family

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GRAS proteins are a recently discovered family of plant-specific proteins named after the first three of its members isolated from Arabidopsis (GAI, RGA and SCR). Since then 32 proteins of this family have been identified but most of them have not yet been characterized regarding their biological function. The proteins seem to be involved in various developmental processes and signal transduction pathways. GAI and other "DELLA" proteins are involved in gibberellic acid signal transduction, PAT1 in phytochrome signal transduction, and SCR, SHR und Ls are involved in morphological development. The analysis of mutants, which are either disrupted in a gene coding for a GRAS protein or overexpressing it, will be used to determine the physiological and regulatory function of gene products. In parallel, the cellbiological and biochemical function of the corresponding proteins will be analyzed. The goal of this approach is to identify the biological role of yet uncharacterized GRAS proteins, to determine if homologous proteins participate in related processes and how they interact in regulatory networks.