Ubiquitin-Proteasome System in ABA Signaling: From Perception to Action

Protein post-translational modification (PTM) by ubiquitination has been observed during many aspects of plant growth, development, and stress responses. The ubiquitin-proteasome system precisely regulates phytohormone signaling by affecting protein activity, localization, assembly, and interaction ability. Abscisic acid (ABA) is a major phytohormone, and plays important roles in plants under normal or stressed growth conditions. The ABA signaling pathway is composed of phosphatases, kinases, transcription factors, and membrane ion channels. It has been reported that multiple ABA signaling transducers are subjected to the regulations by ubiquitination. In particular, recent studies have identified different types of E3 ligases that mediate ubiquitination of ABA receptors in different cell compartments. This review focuses on modulation of these components by monoubiquitination or polyubiquitination that occurs in the plasma membrane, endomembranes, and from the cytosol to the nucleus; this implies the existence of retrograde and trafficking processes that are regulated by ubiquitination in ABA signaling. A number of single-unit E3 ligases, components of multi-subunit E3 ligases, E2s, and specific subunits of the 26S proteasome involved in ABA signal regulation are discussed. Dissecting the precise functions of ubiquitination in the ABA pathway may help us understand key factors in the signaling of other phytohormones regulated by ubiquitination and other types of PTMs.