Recapitulation of the forward nuclear auxin response pathway in yeast

Abstract

Significance Auxin is a simple small molecule, yet it elicits an enormous variety of responses. How a single molecule can encode such diverse and context-specific information is a long-standing question. One hypothesis is that variation in auxin response components generates diversity in local auxin responses. To test this, we transplanted the forward nuclear auxin signal transduction pathway from plants into yeast. We found that auxin circuit composition can tune the dynamic response, and we identified which properties of auxin response components had the largest impact on circuit performance. Reconstitution of eukaryotic pathways in novel contexts can inform our understanding of the pathways themselves and can generate tools for engineering novel cellular behaviors.

Auxin-induced degradation dynamics set the pace for lateral root development

“…Our engineering of degradation rates by single point mutations may be analogous to natural evolutionary processes of selecting Aux/IAA properties to tune emergent auxin signaling modules in new contexts. Optimization of auxin sensitivity among co-expressed Aux/IAAs could produce a hierarchical order of action through ordered turnover of different Aux/IAAs (Pierre-Jerome et al, 2014). In this way, sequential degradation of Aux/IAAs could lead to a wave of gene expression, similar to the temporal gradation of gene expression observed for Dpp signaling during Drosophila wing development (O'Keefe et al, 2014).…”

“…There is significant variation among Aux/IAAs in both auxininduced affinity for TIR1/AFBs and degradation rates (Calderón Villalobos et al, 2012;Havens et al, 2012). This variation can be translated into quantitative differences in auxin-induced transcription in a synthetic context (Pierre-Jerome et al, 2014).…”

SCFTIR1/AFB-Based Auxin Perception: Mechanism and Role in Plant Growth and Development

“…Furthermore, circuits with multiple coexpressed Aux/IAAs displayed unique behaviors that may be relevant during plant development. This work provides a new approach for dissecting auxin signaling and demonstrates the key role of Aux/IAAs in tuning the dynamic pattern of auxin response (Pierre-Jerome et al, 2014).…”

“…Recently, a synthetic biology approach has been applied to the study of auxin signaling (Havens et al, 2012;Pierre-Jerome et al, 2014). By engineering the core auxin-signaling pathway into budding yeast, these workers developed a novel and powerful platform for studies of the pathway.…”

Auxin 2016: a burst of auxin in the warm south of China

“…It has been applied to auxin by reconstructing the auxin signaling pathway regulating transcription in yeast (Pierre-Jerome et al, 2014), as discussed by Amy Lanctot from Jennifer Nemhauser's laboratory (Washington University, Seattle, WA, USA). She further showed how this synthetic pathway can be used to analyze how the organization of ARF-binding motifs in promoters influences binding and transcriptional activity, an analysis that supports the idea that it is not only binding site spacing that determines activity in response to a given ARF but also the number and orientation of sites (PierreJerome et al, 2016).…”