The G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) superfamily represents the most important class of pharmaceutical targets. Therefore, the characterization of receptor cascades and their ligands is a prerequisite to discovering novel drugs. Quantification of agonist-induced second messengers and downstream-coupled kinase activities is central to characterization of GPCRs or other pathways that converge on GPCR-mediated signaling. Furthermore, there is a need for simple, cell-based assays that would report on direct or indirect actions on GPCR-mediated effectors of signaling. More generally, there is a demand for sensitive assays to quantify alterations of protein complexes in vivo. We describe the development of a Renilla luciferase (Rluc)-based protein fragment complementation assay (PCA) that was designed specifically to investigate dynamic protein complexes. We demonstrate these features for GPCR-induced disassembly of protein kinase A (PKA) regulatory and catalytic subunits, a key effector of GPCR signaling. Taken together, our observations show that the PCA allows for direct and accurate measurements of live changes of absolute values of protein complex assembly and disassembly as well as cellular imaging and dynamic localization of protein complexes. Moreover, the Rluc-PCA has a sufficiently high signal-tobackground ratio to identify endogenously expressed G␣s proteincoupled receptors. We provide pharmacological evidence that the phosphodiesterase-4 family selectively down-regulates constitutive ␤-2 adrenergic-but not vasopressin-2 receptor-mediated PKA activities. Our results show that the sensitivity of the Rluc-PCA simplifies the recording of pharmacological profiles of GPCR-based candidate drugs and could be extended to high-throughput screens to identify novel direct modulators of PKA or upstream components of GPCR signaling cascades.G protein-coupled receptor ͉ complementation assays ͉ protein-protein interactions ͉ protein fragment G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) represent the largest family of cell-surface molecules involved in signal transmission. GPCRs play roles in a broad range of biological processes through regulating the majority of cell-to-cell and cell-toenvironment communication, and, consequently, their dysfunction manifests in numerous diseases (1, 2). The GPCR family has enormous pharmacological importance, as demonstrated by the fact that Ͼ30% of approved drugs elicit their therapeutic effect by selectively acting on known members of this family (3). The human genome harbors Ͼ800 putative GPCRs including a considerable number with unknown physiological function or ligands. GPCR cascades hence remain a major focus of molecular pharmacology (4, 5).Signal transduction by GPCRs is mediated by activation of protein kinases (4), among which the most intensively studied is the cAMP-dependent protein kinase A (PKA) (6). Various extracellular signals converge on the cAMP/PKA pathway through ligand binding to GPCRs. The adenylyl cyclase then converts ATP to the ubiquitous second messenger cAMP. Intrac...

Glycoproteins with asparagine-linked (N-linked) glycans occur in all eukaryotic cells. The function of their glycan moieties is one of the central problems in contemporary cell biology. N-glycosylation may modify physicochemical and biological protein properties such as conformation, degradation, intracellular sorting or secretion. We have isolated and characterized two allelic Arabidopsis mutants, gcs1-1 and gcs1-2, which produce abnormal shrunken seeds, blocked at the heart stage of development. The mutant seeds accumulate a low level of storage proteins, have no typical protein bodies, display abnormal cell enlargement and show occasional cell wall disruptions. The mutated gene has been cloned by T-DNA tagging. It codes for a protein homologous to animal and yeast alpha-glucosidase I, an enzyme that controls the first committed step for N-glycan trimming. Biochemical analyses have confirmed that trimming of the alpha1,2- linked glucosyl residue constitutive of the N-glycan precursor is blocked in this mutant. These results demonstrate the importance of N-glycan trimming for the accumulation of seed storage proteins, the formation of protein bodies, cell differentiation and embryo development.

In the exalbuminous species Arabidopsis thaliana, seed maturation is accompanied by the deposition of oil and storage proteins and the reduction of the endosperm to one cell layer. Here, we consider reserve partitioning between embryo and endosperm compartments. The pattern of deposition, final amount, and composition of these reserves differ between the two compartments, with the embryo representing the principal storage tissue in mature seeds. Complex regulatory mechanisms are known to prevent activation of maturation-related programs during embryo morphogenesis and, later, during vegetative growth. Here, we describe a regulator that represses the expression of maturation-related genes during maturation within the endosperm. MYB118 is transcriptionally induced in the maturing endosperm, and seeds of myb118 mutants exhibit an endosperm-specific derepression of maturation-related genes associated with a partial relocation of storage compounds from the embryo to the endosperm. Moreover, MYB118 activates endosperm-induced genes through the recognition of TAACGG elements. These results demonstrate that the differential partitioning of reserves between the embryo and endosperm in exalbuminous Arabidopsis seeds does not only result from developmental programs that establish the embryo as the preponderant tissue within seeds. This differential partitioning is also regulated by MYB118, which regulates the biosynthesis of reserves at the spatial level during maturation.

LEAFY COTYLEDON2 (LEC2) is a master regulator of seed development in Arabidopsis thaliana. In vegetative organs, LEC2 expression is negatively regulated by Polycomb Repressive Complex2 (PRC2) that catalyzes histone H3 Lys 27 trimethylation (H3K27me3) and plays a crucial role in developmental phase transitions. To characterize the cis-regulatory elements involved in the transcriptional regulation of LEC2, molecular dissections and functional analyses of the promoter region were performed in vitro, both in yeast and in planta. Two cis-activating elements and a cis-repressing element (RLE) that is required for H3K27me3 marking were characterized. Remarkably, insertion of the RLE cis-element into pF3H, an unrelated promoter, is sufficient for repressing its transcriptional activity in different tissues. Besides improving our understanding of LEC2 regulation, this study provides important new insights into the mechanisms underlying H3K27me3 deposition and PRC2 recruitment at a specific locus in plants.