Metabolic enzymes as targets for 14-3-3 proteins

The 14-3-3 proteins are binding proteins that have been shown to interact with a wide array of enzymes involved in primary biosynthetic and energy metabolism in plants. In most cases, the significance of binding of the 14-3-3 protein is not known. However, most of the interactions are phosphorylation-dependent and most of the known binding partners are found in the cytosol, while some may also be localized to plastids and mitochondria. In this review, we examine the factors that may regulate the binding of 14-3-3s to their target proteins, and discuss their possible roles in the regulation of the activity and proteolytic degradation of enzymes involved in primary carbon and nitrogen metabolism.