Seminar IBIP

Campus Montpellier SupAgro/INRA de La Gaillarde (2, place P. Viala Montpellier)

Thursday 1st february 2018 Amphi 208 (School Heart) at 14:00

Tina Romeis
(Dahlem Centre of Plant Sciences, Plant Biochemistry, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany)

Regulation and function of Calcium-Dependent Protein Kinases as decoders of calcium changes during stress signalling and development.

Calcium-triggered intracellular signalling is a prerequisite to mount abiotic and biotic stress responses, and increasing evidence hints toward a Ca2+-dependent regulation of plant growth and development. Calcium-dependent protein kinases (CDPKs) combine within one molecule a calcium-sensing domain which contains in general 4 EF-hand calcium-binding motifs and a protein kinase effector domain. Accordingly, CDPKs function as decoders that sense and translate (induced) cytoplasmic changes in Ca2+ into further downstream signalling events. CDPKs participate in abiotic stress responses in ABA-signalling and in the control of the stomatal aperture. In innate immune signalling, CDPKs have been identified as positive as well as negative regulators for both local early and late systemic defence responses in PTI and ETI, and in particular a role in defence signal propagation has been shown. CDPKs have also been characterized in the control of pollen tube- and shoot and root growth. Our current research focuses on the primary biochemical enzyme activation mechanism as well as on the identification of biological processes and genuine in vivo phosphorylation substrates for distinct CDPK isoforms. In particular, we aim for biochemical mechanisms how CDPKs mediate calcium specificity, and how calcium signals are decoded by CDPK isoforms into different signalling outputs.

Contact : Christophe Maurel (christophe.maurel@cnrs.fr)