A protein pair helps plants sense stress and ration sulfur
Sun SK, Wirtz M, Hell R
Plant Signaling
The same chemistry that lets a tomato plant cope with drought or a pepper fend off disease runs through this sulfur-sensing machinery, so understanding it could help breeders build sturdier, more stress-tolerant garden varieties.
Every plant needs to make cysteine, a building block for proteins and many sulfur-based defense chemicals. Two enzymes team up to build it, and that partnership can snap together or break apart depending on how much sulfur, carbon, and nitrogen the plant has on hand. Scientists are now finding this partnership also acts like a control switch, helping the plant decide how to respond when it faces drought, strong sunlight, toxic metals in the soil, or an attacking pathogen.
Key Findings
Cysteine is produced when serine acetyltransferase (SERAT) and O-acetylserine-(thiol)lyase (OAS-TL) join to form the cysteine synthase complex (CSC)
CSC assembly is reversible and controlled by the cysteine precursors O-acetylserine and sulfide, tying it directly to cellular carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur status
The CSC occurs in multiple subcellular compartments and shows functionally distinct roles across different plant species, linking sulfur metabolism to stress responses like high light, drought, heavy metals, and pathogens
chevron_right Technical Summary
Plants make the amino acid cysteine using a two-protein 'complex' that acts like a sensor, linking the plant's internal carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur levels to how it responds to stresses like drought, intense light, heavy metals, and disease.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Emerging functions of cysteine synthase complexes in plants.
Cysteine biosynthesis is the entry point of reduced sulfur into plant metabolism, and underlies the formation of numerous sulfur-containing compounds essential for stress adaptation. Cysteine is pr...
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