Phosphorelay and transcription control in cytokinin signal transduction

The past decade has seen substantial advances in knowledge of molecular mechanisms and actions of plant hormones, but only in the past few years has research on cytokinins begun to hit its stride. Cytokinins are master regulators of a large number of processes in plant development, which is known to be unusually plastic and adaptive, as well as resilient and perpetual. These characteristics allow plants to respond sensitively and quickly to their environments. Recent studies have demonstrated that cytokinin signaling involves a multistep two-component signaling pathway, resulting in the development of a canonical model of cytokinin signaling that is likely representative in plants. This Viewpoint outlines this general model, focusing on the specific example of Arabidopsis, and introduces the STKE Connections Maps for both the canonical module and the specific Arabidopsis Cytokinin Signaling Pathway.