Fluorescent protein tagging of Arabidopsis MAPKs for in vivo localization studies

Mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK) are key regulatory elements in many processes. They are highly conserved throughout eukaryotes. In plants, MAPKs are involved in biotic and abiotic stress responses; they regulate cell division, cell growth, and also programmed cell death. In vivo visualization of MAPKs is crucial for understanding of their spatiotemporal organization. Cloning of MAPK-fluorescent protein fusions might present difficulties related to the preservation of protein-protein interactions essential for MAPK localization, interactions with upstream and downstream regulators, and finally substrate targeting. In this chapter we describe cloning of MAPKs in the flexible MultiSite Gateway(®) cloning system followed by easy and quick testing of binary vectors by transient assays in Arabidopsis thaliana and Nicotiana benthamiana.