For whom the bell tolls: Linking protease degradomes with the proteasome through the N-end rule pathway to understand biological function.

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Intracellular proteases cleave protein substrates to reveal polypeptide fragments. What are those fragments, do they have novel activities, and how does the cell regulate their stability? These questions are the focus of this proposal, that will attempt for the first time to systematically unite two different areas of plant protein biochemistry; the action of proteases and the ubiquitin-mediated degradation of polypeptides. It will address a novel hypothesis with important implications in both, that the N-end rule pathway is an undiscovered component controlling the biological function of plant proteases by linking protease targets to the ubiquitin proteasome system. The project will vastly increase the number of known plant N-end rule substrates, and will provide a biological understanding of the consequences of plant protease action. It will focus on the plant immune response and seek to uncover novel N-end rule substrate(s) that enhance the immune response.