Addition of sugar molecules is crucial for plants in basic developmental processes

Researchers have found that for plants in basic developmental processes, the addition of sugar molecules to particular proteins plays a surprising variety of roles. The research team, led by CSHL Associate Professor Zachary Lippman, published the related study in The Plant Journal last week.

The team conducted research on the role of certain evolutionarily conserved enzymes that add specific sugars to various proteins, and then they discovered that if they delete the genes for these enzymes from the flowering mustard plant Arabidopsis thaliana and the moss Physcomitrella patens, similar defects in both species will occur, which are widely separated in evolutionary time. But part of one species grow more quickly and part of the other grow less quickly than normal level.

We have all known for a long time that adding sugars will modify proteins and that the way proteins function is also changed. The research indicates the importance of proteins to decorate with these sugar molecules in different developmental contexts. Before, the team has shown that a set of sugar-adding enzymes HPATs, which is short for Hydroxyproline O-arabinosyltransferases, control stem cell production in tomato plants. Plants lacking the genes to make HPATs grow more flowers and larger fruit. They also found HPAT genes across a wide variety of plant species.

The researchers proposed that the ancient function of the HPAT genes is to control tip growth, which is likely related to key proteins that are important for forming cell walls.

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