Protein Ubiquitination and Sumoylation in ABA Signaling

Abstract

Abscisic acid (ABA) has been known as a key phytohormone to regulate plant and environmental interaction to modulate plant growth and development under different environmental diversification. ABA signaling could be regulated at different levels, most importantly at transcriptional and post-translational levels. Among them, ubiquitination and sumoylation have been paid attention especially in recent years. Ubiquitination and sumoylation share similar biochemistry pathways, but a three-step enzymatic cascade catalyzed by their specific E1, E2, and E3 enzymes, respectively. Both kinds of post-translational protein modifications can act together or separately to control protein stability, localization, and activity. In this chapter, we will summarize the recent development of protein ubiquitination and sumoylation in control of ABA pathway, including ABA biogenesis and signaling, mainly based on the data from researches in the model plant Arabidopsis.