A Small Molecule Inhibitor Partitions Two Distinct Pathways for Trafficking of Tonoplast Intrinsic Proteins in Arabidopsis
September 2012
in “
PloS one
”
TLDR Two distinct pathways direct proteins to vacuoles in Arabidopsis, affecting root hair growth and protein targeting.
The study investigated the trafficking mechanisms of tonoplast intrinsic proteins (TIPs) in Arabidopsis seedlings, revealing that TIPs are targeted to the vacuole via at least two distinct pathways: one Golgi-dependent and one Golgi-independent. Using a novel chemical inhibitor, the researchers demonstrated that the trafficking of TIP3;1 and TIP2;1 is insensitive to Brefeldin A (BFA), unlike TIP1;1. Inhibition of the BFA-insensitive pathway impaired root hair growth and increased vacuolar targeting of the auxin efflux carrier PIN2 in the dark, suggesting that common mechanisms may mediate the vacuolar targeting of PIN2 and the BFA-insensitive pathway for tonoplast proteins.
