| Brassinosteroid insensitive 1 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Identifiers | |||||||
| Organism | |||||||
| Symbol | BRI1 | ||||||
| Entrez | 830095 | ||||||
| HomoloGene | 91895 | ||||||
| RefSeq (mRNA) | NM_120100.3 | ||||||
| RefSeq (Prot) | NP_195650.1 | ||||||
| UniProt | O22476 | ||||||
| Other data | |||||||
| EC number | 2.7.11.1 | ||||||
| Chromosome | 4: 18.32 - 18.33 Mb | ||||||
| |||||||
Brassinosteroid insensitive 1 (BRI1) is the major receptor of the plant hormone brassinosteroid. [1] [2] It plays very important roles in plant development, especially in the control of cell elongation and for the tolerance of environmental stresses. BRI1 enhances cell elongation, [1] promotes pollen development, [3] controls vasculature development [2] and promotes chilling and freezing tolerance. [4] BRI1 is one of the most well studied hormone receptors and it acts a model for the study of membrane-bound receptors in plants.
BRI1 is an integral membrane protein. On the extracellular side of the membrane lies a series of 25 leucine-rich repeats (LRRs). The LRR domain forms a horseshoe shape. An atypical LRR within this domain acts as the brassinosteroid binding site. Next to the LRR domain there is a single-pass transmembrane section. The intracellular domain of BRI1 functions as a kinase and it is this domain triggers the phosphorylation cascade that results in changes of gene expression. [5]
In the absence of brassinosteroid, BRI1 is held in an inactive state by another protein, BRI1 kinase inhibitor 1 (BKI1). [6] When brassinosteroid binds to BRI1, it reduces the stability of the BRI1:BKI1 complex and promotes the binding of BRI1 to another membrane protein, BRI1-associated receptor kinase 1 (BAK1). [7] In the BRI1:BAK1 complex, both BRI1 and BAK1 make contact with the brassinosteroid molecule and for this reason they are considered a co-receptor. [5] [7] BRI1 and BAK1 sequentially phosphorylate each other in their kinase domains, which results in the activation of BRI1. The activated kinase domain of BRI1 phosphorylates several receptor-like cytoplasmic kinases (RLCKs), notably the brassinosteroid signalling kinase (BSK) and constituitive differential growth 1 (CDG1) families. The RLCKs transduce this signal to downstream components, which ultimately results in the activation or de-activation of several transcription factors. [5]
In the model plant species Arabidopsis thaliana, BRI1 acts alongside two homologous proteins, known as BRI1-LIKE1 (BRL1) and BRL3. [2] The function of BRL1 and BRL3 appears to be restricted to the development of the vasculature system, but even in this context, BRI1 plays a more dominant role. [2] Both BRL1 and BRL3 are able to bind brassinosteroids and act as receptors. [2] [5] A fourth BRI1-family protein, BRL2 cannot bind brassinosteroid and its function is unknown. [5]
BRI1 belongs to the large leucine-rich receptor-like protein kinase family. There are many other members of this family of proteins, [8] and one of the most important is FLS2. [9] FLS2 acts as a detector of the bacterial protein flagellin and is important for plant immunity. [9] Surprisingly (given their different functions) the signal cascades of BRI1 and FLS2 share many of the same components. [10] Recently it was suggested that BRI1 and FLS2 localize to different 'nano-domains' on the cell membrane and it is this spatial separation that accounts for their very different signal outputs. [11]