Identification of Arabidopsis thaliana NRT1/PTR FAMILY (NPF) proteins capable of transporting plant hormones

• Published in: Journal of plant research Vol. 128; no. 4; pp. 679 - 686
• Main Authors: Chiba, Yasutaka, Shimizu, Takafumi, Miyakawa, Shinya, Kanno, Yuri, Koshiba, Tomokazu, Kamiya, Yuji, Seo, Mitsunori
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Tokyo Springer Japan 01.07.2015; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Acetic acid; Arabidopsis - genetics; Arabidopsis - metabolism; Arabidopsis Proteins - genetics; Arabidopsis Proteins - metabolism; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Carrier Proteins - genetics; Carrier Proteins - metabolism; Cloning, Molecular; Flowers & plants; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant - physiology; Hormones; Life Sciences; Liquid chromatography; Mass spectrometry; Metabolites; Multigene Family; Peptides; Plant Biochemistry; Plant Ecology; Plant Growth Regulators - metabolism; Plant Physiology; Plant Sciences; Proteins; Regular Paper; Secondary metabolites; Two-Hybrid System Techniques; Yeasts; Abscisic acid (ABA); Arabidopsis; Jasmonoyl-isoleucine (JA-Ile); ); NRT1/PTR FAMILY (NPF); Transport; Gibberellin (GA)
• ISSN: 0918-9440; 1618-0860
• DOI: 10.1007/s10265-015-0710-2

NRT1/PTR FAMILY (NPF) proteins were originally identified as nitrate or di/tri-peptide transporters. Recent studies revealed that th is transporter family also transports the plant hormones auxin (indole-3-acetic acid), abscisic acid (ABA), and gibberellin (GA), as well as secondary metabolites ( glucosinolates). We developed modified yeast two-hybrid systems with receptor complexes for GA and jasmonoyl-isoleucine (JA-Ile), to detect GA and JA-Ile transport activities of proteins expressed in the yeast cells. Using these GA and JA-Ile systems as well as the ABA system that we had introduced previously, we determined the capacities of Arabidopsis NPFs to transport these hormones. Several NPFs induced the formation of receptor complexes under relatively low hormone concentrations. Hormone transport activities were confirmed for some NPFs by direct analysis of hormone uptake of yeast cells by liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry. Our results suggest that at least some NPFs could function as hormone transporters.