Receptor-like kinases: how plants sense their environment and can tell us what they "see"
 
Jack C. Schultz1,*, Heidi M. Appel1, Ramesh Raina2
1 Center for Chemical Ecology, Penn State University, University Park, PA, USA
2 Department of Biology, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, USA
*email: ujq@psu.edu
 
Because plants cannot physically change environments, they must be able to sense and respond dynamically to numerous environmental cues. This probably explains why an exceptionally large fraction of the Arabidopsis genome comprises genes encoding receptor proteins, particularly receptor-like kinases (RLKs), which initiate often complex local and systemic signaling networks. We have found that several RLKs are expressed in response to insect attack and may participate in "sensitizing" the plant for subsequent responses. We are attempting to discern the function of some of the approximately 600 RLKs in Arabidopsis by creating chimeric proteins having various extracellular (sensor) domains linked to a single intracellular (kinase) domain which produces a consistent visible report. We report the creation of the first such chimeric receptors expressed in planta, and discuss the value of the "RLK Kits" we will be producing to investigators in many disciplines.
 
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