Papers by Anna Wawrzyńska
Journal of Experimental Botany
The homeostasis of major macronutrient metabolism needs to be tightly regulated, especially when ... more The homeostasis of major macronutrient metabolism needs to be tightly regulated, especially when the availability of one or more nutrients fluctuates in the environment. Both sulfur metabolism and glucose signaling are important processes throughout plant growth and development, as well as during stress responses. Still, very little is known about how these processes affect each other, although they are positively connected. Here, we showed in Arabidopsis that the crucial transcription factor of sulfur metabolism, SLIM1, is involved in glucose signaling during shortage of sulfur. The germination rate of the slim1_KO mutant was severely affected by high glucose and osmotic stress. The expression of SLIM1-dependent genes in sulfur deficiency appeared to be additionally induced by a high concentration of either mannitol or glucose, but also by sucrose, which is not only the source of glucose but another signaling molecule. Additionally, SLIM1 affects PAP1 expression during sulfur defic...
Overexpression of genes involved in phytochelatin biosynthesis in Escherichia coli: effects on gr... more Overexpression of genes involved in phytochelatin biosynthesis in Escherichia coli: effects on growth, cadmium accumulation and thiol level �
Frontiers in Plant Science, 2020
Members of the plant-specific LSU (RESPONSE TO LOW SULFUR) family are strongly induced during sul... more Members of the plant-specific LSU (RESPONSE TO LOW SULFUR) family are strongly induced during sulfur starvation. The molecular functions of these proteins are unknown; however, they were identified as important stress-related hubs in several studies. In Arabidopsis thaliana, there are four members of the LSU family (LSU1-4). These proteins are small (approximately 100 amino acids), with coiled-coil structures. In this work, we investigated interactions between different monomers of LSU1-4. Differences in homoand heterodimer formation were observed. Our structural models of LSU1-4 homo-and heterodimers were in agreement with our experimental observations and may help understand their binding properties. LSU proteins are involved in multiple proteinprotein interactions, with the literature suggesting they can integrate abiotic and biotic stress responses. Previously, LSU partners were identified using the yeast two hybrid approach, therefore we sought to determine proteins co-purifying with LSU family members using protein extracts isolated from plants ectopically expressing TAP-tagged LSU1-4 constructs. These experiments revealed 46 new candidates for LSU partners. We tested four of them (and two other proteins, CAT2 and NBR1) for interaction with LSU1-4 by other methods. Binding of all six proteins with LSU1-4 was confirmed by Bimolecular Fluorescence Complementation, while only three of them were interacting with LSUs in yeast-two-hybrid. Additionally, we conducted network analysis of LSU interactome and revealed novel clues for the possible cellular function of these proteins.
Plant and Cell Physiology, 2020
Plants are continuously exposed to different abiotic and biotic stresses; therefore, to protect t... more Plants are continuously exposed to different abiotic and biotic stresses; therefore, to protect themselves, they depend on the fast reprogramming of large gene repertoires to prioritize the expression of a given stress-induced gene set over normal cellular household genes. The activity of the proteasome, a large proteolytic complex that degrades proteins, is vital to coordinate the expression of such genes. Proteins are labeled for degradation by the action of E3 ligases that site-specifically alter their substrates by adding chains of ubiquitin. Recent publications have revealed an extensive role of ubiquitination in the utilization of nutrients. This study presents the transcriptomic profiles of sulfur-deficient rosettes and roots of Arabidopsis thaliana rpt2a mutant with proteasomal malfunction. We found that genes connected with sulfur metabolism are regulated to the lesser extent in rpt2a mutant while genes encoding transfer RNAs and small nucleolar RNAs are highly upregulated....
Frontiers in Plant Science, 2015
Journal of Biotechnology, 2009
Characterization of the function, regulation and metal-specificity of metal transporters is one o... more Characterization of the function, regulation and metal-specificity of metal transporters is one of the basic steps needed for the understanding of transport and accumulation of toxic metals and metalloids by plants. In this work GUS was used as a reporter for monitoring the activity of the promoter of the AtMRP3 gene from Arabidopsis thaliana, a gene encoding an ABC-transporter, expression of which is induced by heavy metals. The AtMRP3 promoter-GUS fusion expression cassette was introduced into the genome of two model plants, A. thaliana and Nicotiana tabacum. The promoter induces GUS activity in the roots as well as in the shoots upon metal exposure. Similar responses of the AtMRP3 promoter to the presence of the selected metals was observed in both plant species. Cadmium, nickel, arsenic, cobalt and lead strongly activated the transcription of the reporter gene, while zinc and iron had no impact. The AtMRP3 promoter thus seems to be a useful new tool in designing plants that can be used for biomonitoring of environmental contaminations.
Autophagy, 2011
is acknowledged for excellent technical assistance, Dali Gaganidze for help with pull-down and An... more is acknowledged for excellent technical assistance, Dali Gaganidze for help with pull-down and Anna Anielska-Mazur for help with microscope techniques. We are grateful to Prof. Teresa Żołądek for her comments on the manuscript.
Frontiers in Plant Science
Editorial on the Research Topic Protein posttranslational modifications in plant responses to abi... more Editorial on the Research Topic Protein posttranslational modifications in plant responses to abiotic stress-Women in plant science series Abiotic stressors such as low nutrient availability, drought, flood, salinity, extreme temperatures, or high UV regularly affect plant growth and development causing severe agricultural production limitations around the world. Post-translational modifications (PTMs) are often involved in plants' response to stresses enabling the coordination of multiple signaling pathways. The mechanisms and dynamics of PTMs are now a crucial topic of plant research because they represent one of the quickest and earliest responses to environmental changes. PTMs expand proteome diversity and enlarge its functionality affecting the signaling pathways, gene expression, protein stability, localization and interactions, and enzyme kinetics, all at relatively low costs for the cell. Therefore, to obtain a response that is distinct to the type of stress and its duration, plant signaling pathways mainly rely on modifications of particular amino acid residues in proteins. Although the list of PTMs in the plant proteome is growing rapidly, it is often unclear how they affect proteins and their function. The goal of this Research Topic is to provide an overview of the recent work of experts studying PTM's role in plants, with a special emphasis on the processes involved in abiotic stress signaling and response. Among many mechanisms of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species sensing in cells, their reactivity with cysteine residues appears to be a major oxidative PTM among living kingdoms (Mukherjee, 2020). The formation of a wide range of cysteine PTMs, including Frontiers in Plant Science frontiersin.org 01
Overexpression of genes involved in phytochelatin biosynthesis in Escherichia coli: effects on gr... more Overexpression of genes involved in phytochelatin biosynthesis in Escherichia coli: effects on growth, cadmium accumulation and thiol level �
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Autophagy, an important cellular degradation system plays an important role in plant growth, deve... more Autophagy, an important cellular degradation system plays an important role in plant growth, development and response to environmental stresses. In stress conditions it protects plant cells from the oxidative stress by degrading oxidized proteins and it recovers valuable substances from the degraded cellular components. On the other hand selective degradation of certain cellular targets (such as transcription factors or other regulatory proteins) by the plant autophagy machinery might be an effective strategy of reprogramming the cellular metabolism during shortage of nutrients. The role of selective autophagy and the selective autophagy cargo receptors is quite well characterized in mammals. Plants also possess selective autophagy cargo receptors, of similar to mammalian proteins domain architecture, named, depending on the plant species, NBR1 (Arabidopsis) or Joka2 (tobacco, potato). Through binding to ATG8s proteins NBR1/Joka2 deliver cargo to autophagosomes. However, their other...
International Journal of Molecular Sciences, Apr 16, 2020
Plants are able to synthesize all essential metabolites from minerals, water, and light to comple... more Plants are able to synthesize all essential metabolites from minerals, water, and light to complete their life cycle. This plasticity comes at a high energy cost, and therefore, plants need to tightly allocate resources in order to control their economy. Being sessile, plants can only adapt to fluctuating environmental conditions, relying on quality control mechanisms. The remodeling of cellular components plays a crucial role, not only in response to stress, but also in normal plant development. Dynamic protein turnover is ensured through regulated protein synthesis and degradation processes. To effectively target a wide range of proteins for degradation, plants utilize two mechanistically-distinct, but largely complementary systems: the 26S proteasome and the autophagy. As both proteasomaland autophagy-mediated protein degradation use ubiquitin as an essential signal of substrate recognition, they share ubiquitin conjugation machinery and downstream ubiquitin recognition modules. Recent progress has been made in understanding the cellular homeostasis of iron and sulfur metabolisms individually, and growing evidence indicates that complex crosstalk exists between iron and sulfur networks. In this review, we highlight the latest publications elucidating the role of selective protein degradation in the control of iron and sulfur metabolism during plant development, as well as environmental stresses.
Sulfur Metabolism in Higher Plants - Fundamental, Environmental and Agricultural Aspects, 2017
Glycine-rich proteins (GRPs) with characteristic repetitive glycine stretches are ubiquitous in o... more Glycine-rich proteins (GRPs) with characteristic repetitive glycine stretches are ubiquitous in organisms of all Kingdoms and have distinct functions. It is believed that Gly-rich domains serve mainly for interactions with other proteins. Previously, we identified the tobacco UP30 gene as strongly upregulated by sulfur deficiency. It encodes a protein highly similar to cdiGRP which affects tobacco defense response by elevating cell wall callose deposits thus blocking systemic movement of viruses. The closest Arabidopsis thaliana homologue of UP30 is GRP-3 (At2g05520). Here we report that GRP-3 is induced in Arabidopsis seedlings in both sulfur and nitrogen deficiency conditions. The transgenic Arabidopsis plants with changed GRP-3 expression (either overexpressing or with silenced GRP-3) tend to have longer roots than the wild type, especially in the conditions of sulfur deficiency. The effect could be alleviated by the addition of auxin to the media. Moreover, we observed the increased callose deposition in both Arabidopsis lines suggesting its negative effects on shoot-to-root movement of auxins in nutrient deficient conditions.
Sulfur Metabolism in Plants, 2012
High light induces the production of cysteine and glutathione (GSH) as part of the oxidative stre... more High light induces the production of cysteine and glutathione (GSH) as part of the oxidative stress response triggered by reactive oxygen species. Cysteine is produced in a two-step process, in which serine acetyltransferase (SAT) catalyses the first reaction. In Arabidopsis thaliana cyclophilin CYP20-3 was reported to promote plastidic SAT1 activity and thus cysteine and GSH production under high light conditions (Dominguez-Solis et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 105:16386–16391, 2008). Challenging the loss of function mutant cyp20-3 with high light however did not reveal any hypersensitivity of the mutant questioning the function of CYP20-3 in regulation of cysteine synthesis. Although physical interaction of CYP20-3 and SAT1 could be confirmed by yeast two-hybrid analysis, plastidic cysteine synthesis induced by oxidative stress is probably regulated by mechanisms other than CYP20-3 function.
Transgenic tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum cv. LA Burley 21) lines expressing three genes encoding enz... more Transgenic tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum cv. LA Burley 21) lines expressing three genes encoding enzymes thought to be critical for the efficient production of phytochelatins, (i) serine acetyltransferase (EC 2.3.1.30) involved in the production of O-acetylserine, the cysteine precursor, (ii) c-glutamylcysteine synthetase (EC 6.3.2.2) involved in the production of c-glutamylcysteine, the precursor of glutathione, and (iii) phytochelatin synthase (EC 2.3.2.15), were obtained and analysed for non-protein thiol content and cadmium accumulation. After a 3 week exposure to 15 lM CdCl 2 , plants expressing transgenes (either separately or in combination) had increased cadmium concentration in roots but not in shoots compared with the wild type. Nearly all transgenic lines analysed had more non-protein thiols than the wild type. The greatest effects (about 8-fold elevation of thiols) were found in one of the lines simultaneously expressing the three transgenes. Despite the fact that a multi-transgene strategy described in this work resulted in a strong increase in the levels of several classes of non-protein thiols in transgenic plants, other factors appeared to restrict cadmium accumulation in shoots.
International Journal of Molecular Sciences
A rapid and appropriate genetic and metabolic acclimation, which is crucial for plants’ survival ... more A rapid and appropriate genetic and metabolic acclimation, which is crucial for plants’ survival in a changing environment, is maintained due to the coordinated action of plant hormones and cellular degradation mechanisms influencing proteostasis. The plant hormone abscisic acid (ABA) rapidly accumulates in plants in response to environmental stress and plays a pivotal role in the reaction to various stimuli. Increasing evidence demonstrates a significant role of autophagy in controlling ABA signaling. This field has been extensively investigated and new discoveries are constantly being provided. We present updated information on the components of the ABA signaling pathway, particularly on transcription factors modified by different E3 ligases. Then, we focus on the role of selective autophagy in ABA pathway control and review novel evidence on the involvement of autophagy in different parts of the ABA signaling pathway that are important for crosstalk with other hormones, particula...
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Papers by Anna Wawrzyńska