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Published on: August 25, 2018
Links between drought stress and autophagy in plants
1Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Michigan State University , East Lansing, MI, USA.
Abstract:
Autophagy is a widely shared pathway among different eukaryotes, which helps to maintain cellular homeostasis via recycling unwanted cytoplasmic components. Autophagy plays an important role in plant growth, also assists plants in confronting various environmental stresses. Drought stress can activate autophagy pathway in plants to favor their environmental adaptations, however, a direct link to wire drought and autophagy is still missing. We have recently identified a plant-unique COST1 (Constitutively Stressed 1) protein that can negatively regulate plant drought tolerance through direct interaction with an autophagy receptor protein ATG8e (autophagy-related 8e). COST1 thus represents an innovation of plant-specific autophagy regulation, extending our understating of this conserved but complex pathway, as well as underlying its potential in agricultural usage.
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