Functional reconstitution and structural characterization of the plant hormone receptor ETR1 in lipid nanodiscs

• Published in: Chemical communications (Cambridge, England) Vol. 59; no. 61; pp. 9344 - 9347
• Main Authors: Lemke, Moritz, Reiners, Jens, Smits, Sander H. J, Lakomek, Nils, Groth, Georg
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Royal Society of Chemistry 27.07.2023
• Subjects: Lipids; Receptors; Structural analysis
• ISSN: 1359-7345; 1364-548X
• DOI: 10.1039/d3cc02619a

The plant hormone receptor ETR1 regulates many highly relevant agronomic processes. Today, significant functional and structural questions remain unanswered regarding its multi-pass transmembrane sensor domain able to bind and respond to the gaseous plant hormone ethylene at femtomolar concentrations. A significant reason for this is the lack of structural data on full-length ETR1 in a lipid environment. Herein, we present the functional reconstitution of recombinant full-length ETR1 purified and solubilized from a bacterial host into lipid nanodiscs, allowing the study of the purified plant receptor for the first time in a detergent-free membrane-like environment. The plant hormone receptor ETR1 nanoparticles obtained in this work provide a major methodological breakthrough for further functional and structural studies on a plant key receptor kinase controlling agronomically important traits.