Plant Research

733 Words2 Pages

It has been reported that general down regulation of protein synthesis in mammalian and yeast cells is regulated by phosphorylation of eIF2α (eukaryotic initiation factor 2) during environmental stress such as heat stress, nutrient starvation, or viral infection (Wek et al., 2006). However, the mechanism in plants has not been well characterized (Lageix et al., 2008). Recently, a GCN2-like enzyme (AtGCN2) has been identified in Arabidopsis thaliana which has been shown to compliment a yeast GCN2 null mutant (Scgcn2 ) (Zhang et al, 2003), the homolog, AtGCN2, was shown to be activated and phosphorylate eIF2α in response to several environmental stresses such as amino acid and purine starvation, UV irradiation, cold shock, and wounding (Lageix et al, 2008). These results are consistent with those of Zhang et al (2008) which found the application of herbicides that block the synthesis of specific amino acids induced eIF2α phosphorylation, and this was which completely suppressed by adding an excess of the appropriate amino acids to the growth medium. However, the findings of their st...

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