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Journal of Integrative Agriculture  2014, Vol. 13 Issue (8): 1640-1650    DOI: 10.1016/S2095-3119(13)60524-9
Crop Genetics · Breeding · Germplasm Resources Advanced Online Publication | Current Issue | Archive | Adv Search |
Recent Advances in the Role of the Elongator Complex in Plant Physiology and tRNA Modification: A Review
 YAN Xu, JIN Xiao-huan, WANG You-mei, ZHENG Bo , CHEN Peng
1、Biomass and Bioenergy Research Centre, College of Plant Sciences and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, P.R.China
2、College of Horticulture and Forest Sciences, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, P.R.China
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摘要  The Elongator complex is a multifunction protein complex which has been shown to be involved in transcriptional elongation, DNA replication and repair, tubulin and histone acetylation, gene silencing and tranfer RNA uridine modification. The composition of the Elongator complex is found to be highly conserved in eukaryotes, protein homologs of various subunits have been identified in fungi, plant, animal, and human. Remarkably, mutation in genes encoding the Elongator complex structural components all results in defects of transfer RNA wobble uridine modification, and this function of the Elongator complex is also conserved in eukaryotes. The Elongator complex mutants in higher plants have pleiotropic phenotypes including defects in vegetative growth, abiscisic acid hypersensitivity, elevated tolerance to drought and oxidative stress. What is the relationship between the Elongator complex’s function in nucleoside modification and its activity in other cellular pathways? This review summarizes the recent advances in study of function of the Elongator complex, in the aspects of cell physiology and molecular biology.

Abstract  The Elongator complex is a multifunction protein complex which has been shown to be involved in transcriptional elongation, DNA replication and repair, tubulin and histone acetylation, gene silencing and tranfer RNA uridine modification. The composition of the Elongator complex is found to be highly conserved in eukaryotes, protein homologs of various subunits have been identified in fungi, plant, animal, and human. Remarkably, mutation in genes encoding the Elongator complex structural components all results in defects of transfer RNA wobble uridine modification, and this function of the Elongator complex is also conserved in eukaryotes. The Elongator complex mutants in higher plants have pleiotropic phenotypes including defects in vegetative growth, abiscisic acid hypersensitivity, elevated tolerance to drought and oxidative stress. What is the relationship between the Elongator complex’s function in nucleoside modification and its activity in other cellular pathways? This review summarizes the recent advances in study of function of the Elongator complex, in the aspects of cell physiology and molecular biology.
Keywords:  the Elongator complex       transfer RNA       nucleoside modification  
Received: 12 April 2013   Accepted:
Fund: 

This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31100268 and 31270658), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, China (2011PY108) and the Scientific Research Foundation for the Returned Overseas Chinese Scholars, Ministry of Education, China.

Corresponding Authors:  CHEN Peng, Tel: +86-27-87281399, Fax: +86-27-87281765, E-mail: chenpeng@mail.hzau.edu.cn     E-mail:  chenpeng@mail.hzau.edu.cn

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YAN Xu, JIN Xiao-huan, WANG You-mei, ZHENG Bo , CHEN Peng. 2014. Recent Advances in the Role of the Elongator Complex in Plant Physiology and tRNA Modification: A Review. Journal of Integrative Agriculture, 13(8): 1640-1650.

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