Regulation of polyamine synthesis in plants. Annual progress report

Polyamines are small positively charged compounds that have been hypothesized to be involved in a wide variety of plant physiological and development functions. The regulation of the polyamine synthesis pathway is uniquely interesting because of the existence of two pathways to putrescine synthesis, and the consequent questions of how these two pathways are compartmentalized and how they interact with each other. The specific directions our research is taking are: (1) A characterization of arginine decarboxylase regulation; we have discovered two post-translational mechanisms for regulating arginine decarboxylase activity. One of these is a novel protease that clips the arginine decarboxylase pre-protein to activate it. We would like to understand this activating protease better, determine its mechanism of action, and determine its importance in the overall scheme of arginine decarboxylase regulation. (2) We have begun a similar characterization of ornithine decarboxylase by purifying it from plants. (3) We are characterizing the polyamine mutant collection we have developed. (4) Finally, we have begun to characterize the evolution of arginine decarboxylase, as an additional approach that could shed light on its functions in plants. Our intent is to understand arginine decarboxylase structure and regulation in detail, and then to further explore regulatory differences between ornithine and arginine decarboxylases.