Signal perception at the cell surface and transduction of this signal to the cell’s interior is essential to all life forms. Plants have evolved membrane-integral receptor proteins and associated signaling cascades that drastically differ from the well-studied systems in animals. Our aim is to dissect these signaling pathways in mechanistic detail.
A second line of research aims at uncovering the roles of inositol and inorganic polyphosphates in plants. We are interested where these phosphate- and energy-rich molecules are located within cells, how they are being synthesized/broken down and what’s their cellular function and physiological role.
In collaboration with the group of Roman Ulm we also have begun to dissect different aspects of plant light signal transduction in mechanistic detail.
Recent publications (group members in bold)
- Ried M†, Wild R†, Zhu J, Pipercevic J, Sturm K, Broger L, Harmel RK, Abriata LA, Hothorn LA, Fiedler D, Hiller S, Hothorn M* (2021) Inositol pyrophosphates promote the interaction of SPX domains with the coiled-coil motif of PHR transcription factors to regulate plant phosphate homeostasis. Nature Comms, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-20681-4 | bioRxiv
- Hohmann U, Ramakrishna P, Wang K, Lorenzo-Orts L, Nicolet J, Henschen A, Barberon M, Bayer M*, Hothorn M* (2020) Constitutive activation of leucine-rich repeat receptor kinase signaling pathways by BAK1-interacting receptor-like kinase 3 chimera Plant Cell doi: 10.1105/tpc.20.00138 | bioRxiv doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.02.18.954479
- Okuda S†, Fujita S†, Moretti A, Hohmann U,Hothorn M* (2020) Molecular mechanism for the recognition of sequence-divergent CIF peptides by the plant receptor kinases GSO1/SGN3 and GSO2.
PNAS doi: 10.1073/pnas.1911553117 | bioRxiv doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/692228v2 - Zhu J, Lau K, Puschmann R, Harmel RK, Zhang Y, Pries V, Gaugler P, Broger L, Dutta AK, Jessen HJ, Schaaf G, Fernie AR, Hothorn LA, Fiedler D, Hothorn M (2019)
Two bifunctional inositol pyrophosphate kinases/phosphatases control plant phosphate homeostasis.
eLife pii: e43582. | bioRxiv - Lau K†, Podolec R†, Chappuis R, Ulm R*, Hothorn* (2019) Plant photoreceptors and their signaling components compete for binding to the ubiquitin ligase COP1 using their VP-peptide motifs. EMBO Journal, e102140. doi: 10.15252/embj.2019102140 | bioRxiv doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/568618
