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Scientific background
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 pyrophosphate nutrient messengers in plants. We are interested how these phosphate- and energy-rich molecules are being synthesized/broken down, how they are sensed by specific receptor protein (complexes) and what are their cellular functions and physiological roles in different plant species.
Selected group publications
- Rico-Resendiz F, Pri-Tal O, Raia P, Moretti A, Chen H, Yu J, Broger L, Fuchs C, Hothorn LA, Loubery S, Hothorn M* (2026) Plant Kelch phosphatases are Ser/Thr phosphatases involved in cell cycle regulation. PNAS doi: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2600591123 | bioRxiv doi: https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.01.06.697939
- Raia P, Lee K, Bartsch SM, Rico-Resendiz F, Portugal-Calisto D, Vadas O, Panse VG, Fiedler D, Hothorn, M* (2025) A small signaling domain PPIP5K phosphatase activity in phosphate homeostasis. Nat Commun, doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-56937-0 | bioRxiv
- Laurent F, Bartsch SM, Shukla A, Rico-Resendiz F, Couto D, Fuchs C, Nicolet J, Loubery S, Jessen HJ, Fiedler D, Hothorn M* (2024) Inositol pyrophosphate catabolism by three families of phosphatases regulates plant growth and development. Plos Genetics doi: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1011468 | bioRxiv
- 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
