Translational control of SOG1 expression in response to replication stress in Arabidopsis

DNA damage, which may arise from cellular activities or be induced by genotoxic stresses, can cause genome instability and significantly affect plant growth and productivity. In response to genotoxic stresses, plants activate the cellular DNA damage response (DDR) to sense the stresses and activate downstream processes. The transcription factor SUPPRESSOR OF GAMMA RESPONSE 1 (SOG1), a functional counterpart of mammalian p53, is a master regulator of the DDR in plants. It is activated by various types of DNA lesions and can activate the transcription of hundreds of genes to trigger downstream processes, including cell cycle arrest, DNA repair, endoreplication, and apoptosis. Since SOG1 plays a crucial role in DDR, the activity of SOG1 must be tightly regulated. A recent study published in Plant Cell (Chen et al., Plant Cell koad126, 2023) reports a novel mechanism by which the ATR-WEE1 kinase module promotes SOG1 translation to fine-tune replication stress response.