Both animals and plants use steroids as signalling molecules during growth and development. Animal steroids are principally recognized by members of the nuclear receptor superfamily of transcription factors. In plants, BRI1, a leucine-rich repeat (LRR) receptor kinase localized to the plasma membrane, is a critical component of a receptor complex for brassinosteroids. Here, we present the first evidence for direct binding of active brassinosteroids to BRI1 using a biotin-tagged photoaffinity castasterone (BPCS), a biosynthetic precursor of brassinolide (the most active of the brassinosteroids). Binding studies using BPCS, (3)H-labelled brassinolide and recombinant BRI1 fragments show that the minimal binding domain for brassinosteroids consists of a 70-amino acid island domain (ID) located between LRR21 and LRR22 in the extracellular domain of BRI1, together with the carboxy-terminal flanking LRR (ID-LRR22). Our results demonstrate that brassinosteroids bind directly to the 94 amino acids comprising ID-LRR22 in the extracellular domain of BRI1, and define a new binding domain for steroid hormones.

Steroid hormones are essential for development, and the precise control of their homeostasis is a prerequisite for normal growth. UDP-glycosyltransferases (UGTs) are considered to play an important regulatory role in the activity of steroids in mammals and insects. This study provides an indication that a UGT accepting plant steroids as substrates functions in brassinosteroid (BR) homeostasis. The UGT73C5 of Arabidopsis thaliana catalyses 23-Oglucosylation of the BRs brassinolide (BL) and castasterone. Transgenic plants overexpressing UGT73C5 displayed BR-deficient phenotypes and contained reduced amounts of BRs. The phenotype, which was already apparent in seedlings, could be rescued by application of BR. In feeding experiments with BL, wild-type seedlings converted BL to the 23-O-glucoside; in the transgenic lines silenced in UGT73C5 expression, no 23-O-glucoside was detected, implying that this UGT is the only enzyme that catalyzes BL-23-O-glucosylation in seedlings. Plant lines in which UGT73C5 expression was altered also displayed hypocotyl phenotypes previously described for seedlings in which BR inactivation by hydroxylation was changed. These data support the hypothesis that 23-O-glucosylation of BL is a function of UGT73C5 in planta, and that glucosylation regulates BR activity.glucosylation ͉ glycosyltransferase ͉ homeostasis ͉ plant ͉ steroid

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