Replication-dependent histone mRNAs are the only eukaryotic cellular mRNAs that are not polyadenylated, ending instead in a conserved stem-loop. The 3 end of histone mRNA is required for histone mRNA translation, as is the stem-loop binding protein (SLBP), which binds the 3 end of histone mRNA. We have identified five conserved residues in a 15-amino-acid region in the amino-terminal portion of SLBP, each of which is required for translation. Using a yeast two-hybrid screen, we identified a novel protein, SLBP-interacting protein 1 (SLIP1), that specifically interacts with this region. Mutations in any of the residues required for translation reduces SLIP1 binding to SLBP. The expression of SLIP1 in Xenopus oocytes together with human SLBP stimulates translation of a reporter mRNA ending in the stem-loop but not a reporter with a poly(A) tail. The expression of SLIP1 in HeLa cells also stimulates the expression of a green fluorescent protein reporter mRNA ending in a stem-loop. RNA interference-mediated downregulation of endogenous SLIP1 reduces the rate of translation of endogenous histone mRNA and also reduces cell viability. SLIP1 may function by bridging the 3 end of the histone mRNA with the 5 end of the mRNA, similar to the mechanism of translation of polyadenylated mRNAs.

Signal transduction involving heterotrimeric G proteins is universal among fungi, animals, and plants. In plants and fungi, the best understood function for the G protein complex is its modulation of cell proliferation and one of several important signals that are known to modulate the rate at which these cells proliferate is D-glucose. Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings lacking the ␤ subunit (AGB1) of the G protein complex have altered cell division in the hypocotyl and are D-glucose hypersensitive. With the aim to discover new elements in G protein signaling, we screened for gain-of-function suppressors of altered cell proliferation during early development in the agb1-2 mutant background. One agb1-2-dependent suppressor, designated sgb1-1 D for suppressor of G protein beta1 (agb1-2), restored to wild type the altered cell division in the hypocotyl and sugar hypersensitivity of the agb1-2 mutant. Consistent with AGB1 localization, SGB1 is found at the highest steady-state level in tissues with active cell division, and this level increases in hypocotyls when grown on D-glucose and sucrose. SGB1 is shown here to be a Golgi-localized hexose transporter and acts genetically with AGB1 in early seedling development. INTRODUCTIONAn evolutionarily ancient mechanism for sensing extracellular signals involves the heterotrimeric G proteins, composed of ␣, ␤, and ␥ subunits. Heterotrimeric G protein complexes link ligand perception via seven-transmembrane (7TM), G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) to downstream effectors. Genes that encode G protein signaling elements have been identified in amoebae, fungi, plants, and animals, but among all multicellular eukaryotes, plants have the simplest repertoire of G protein elements to date. Specifically, the Arabidopsis genome encodes a single canonical G␣ and G␤ (AGB1) subunit and two G␥ subunits and a single regulator of G signaling (RGS1) protein (Jones and Assmann, 2004). There are as yet no plant GPCRs having confirmed ligands, although plants do have a limited set of predicted 7TM proteins (Moriyama and Jones, unpublished data). Similarly, there are few known downstream effectors that physically interact with either the plant G␣ subunit or the G␤␥ dimer. One example is a pirin protein (Lapik and Kaufman, 2003), known to serve as a transcriptional cofactor in humans, but with unknown function in Arabidopsis. Based on either genetic or biochemical tests, G␣ effectors in plants also include phospholipase D (Mishra et al., 2006) and ion channels (Aharon et al., 1998;Wang et al., 2001). Recently, we reported that a plant interactor and putative effector to G␣ is an outer membrane plastid protein designated THF1, and this protein together with G␣ comprises part of a dglucose signaling network (Huang et al., 2006).In animals and yeast, heterotrimeric G proteins couple a diverse set of signals such as photons, ions, small molecules, sugars, peptides, and protein ligands (Jones and Assmann, 2004) to control a broad range of physiology (Csaszar and Abel, 2001;Rosenkilde et al., 2001;Roc...

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