The role of APC/C in cell cycle dynamics, growth and development in cereal crops

Abstract

Cereal crops can be considered the basis of human civilization. Thus, it is not surprising that these crops are grown in larger quantities worldwide than any other food supply and provide more energy to humankind than any other provision. Additionally, attempts to harness biomass consumption continue to increase to meet human energy needs. The high pressures for energy will determine the demand for crop plants as resources for biofuel, heat, and electricity. Thus, the search for plant traits associated with genetic increases in yield is mandatory. In multicellular organisms, including plants, growth and development are driven by cell division. These processes require a sequence of intricated events that are carried out by various protein complexes and molecules that act punctually throughout the cycle. Temporal controlled degradation of key cell division proteins ensures a correct onset of the different cell cycle phases and exit from the cell division program. Considering the cell cycle, the Anaphase-Promoting Complex/Cyclosome (APC/C) is an important conserved multi-subunit ubiquitin ligase, marking targets for degradation by the 26S proteasome. Studies on plant APC/C subunits and activators, mainly in the model plant Arabidopsis, revealed that they play a pivotal role in several developmental processes during growth. However, little is known about the role of APC/C in cereal crops. Here, we discuss the current understanding of the APC/C controlling cereal crop development.

Endoreplication—Why Are We Not Using Its Full Application Potential?

“…As already mentioned, plants have a relatively small genome. The natural environment requires plants to display a substantial ability to survive in changing and often very unfavorable conditions because they cannot avoid them after settling in a habitat [21,[43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54]. This can be facilitated by increasing the number of copies of genes beyond the pool they have to begin with.…”

Functional characterization of >i<APC5>/i< in >i<Arabidopsis thaliana>/i<

“…U-Box and HECT are mostly monomeric. The RING domain can be found in monomeric enzymes, like RING ubiquitin ligase and RING between RING (RBR) ligase, and in multi-subunits E3 enzymes such as cullin RING ligases (CRLs) (de Oliveira et al, 2022).…”

“…The TRP and scaffold modules, together, forms the backbone of the complex. The activators module includes the cell division cycle 20 (CDC20) and cell cycle switch 52 (CCS52/CDH1), which contain a tryptophan-aspartate (WD) repeat domain, necessary for effective substrate ubiquitination, and the APC10/Doc1, an important coactivator of the APC/C due to its action in recognizing and recruiting D-box containing proteins Saleme et al, 2021;de Oliveira et al, 2022). Moreover, the APC/C coactivators can increase the affinity for the cognate E2 and its catalytic efficiency (Voorhis and Morgan, 2014).…”

“…Different species of eukaryotes displays a huge number of genes for E3 ligases, showing the importance of the ubiquitin system (Kulkarni, 2008). Two well-characterized E3-ligases are most inti-mately dedicated to basic cell cycle control, namely the S-PHASE KINASE-ASSOCIATED PROTEIN 1 (SKP1)-CUL1-F-box (SCF)-related complex and the ANAPHASE-PROMOTING COM-PLEX/CYCLOSOME (APC/C) (de Oliveira et al, 2022).…”

“…Since its discovery 25 years ago, many aspects of APC/C regulation and roles in cell metabolism were uncovered, but our understanding of this cell machinery remains far from complete (Yamato, 2019). APC/C was reported to play roles in cellular differentiation, gametophytic development, shoot branching, and embryogenesis (de Oliveira et al, 2022). These findings have driven research interest in understanding what other roles the complex may play in plants (Eloy et al, 2011;Lima et al, 2010;Schwedersky et al, 2015).…”