The plant stress hormone abscisic acid (ABA) is critical for several abiotic stress responses. ABA signaling is normally repressed by group-A protein phosphatases 2C (PP2Cs), but stress-induced ABA binds Arabidopsis PYR/PYL/RCAR (PYL) receptors, which then bind and inhibit PP2Cs. X-ray structures of several receptor-ABA complexes revealed a tunnel above ABA's 3' ring CH that opens at the PP2C binding interface. Here, ABA analogs with sufficiently long 3' alkyl chains were predicted to traverse this tunnel and block PYL-PP2C interactions. To test this, a series of 3'-alkylsulfanyl ABAs were synthesized with different alkyl chain lengths. Physiological, biochemical and structural analyses revealed that a six-carbon alkyl substitution produced a potent ABA antagonist that was sufficiently active to block multiple stress-induced ABA responses in vivo. This study provides a new approach for the design of ABA analogs, and the results validated structure-based design for this target class.

Benzoxazinones (Bxs) are major defensive secondary metabolites in wheat (Triticum aestivum), rye (Secale cereale), and maize (Zea mays). Here, we identified full sets of homeologous and paralogous genes encoding Bx glucosyltransferase (GT) and Bxglucoside glucosidase (Glu) in hexaploid wheat (2n = 6x = 42; AABBDD). Four GT loci (TaGTa-TaGTd) were mapped on chromosomes 7A, 7B (two loci), and 7D, whereas four glu1 loci (Taglu1a-Taglu1d) were on chromosomes 2A, 2B (two loci), and 2D. Transcript levels differed greatly among the four loci; B-genome loci of both TaGT and Taglu1 genes were preferentially transcribed. Catalytic properties of the enzyme encoded by each homeolog/paralog also differed despite high levels of identity among amino acid sequences. The predominant contribution of the B genome to GT and Glu reactions was revealed, as observed previously for the five Bx biosynthetic genes, TaBx1 to TaBx5, which are separately located on homeologous groups 4 and 5 chromosomes. In rye, where the ScBx1 to ScBx5 genes are dispersed to chromosomes 7R and 5R, ScGT and Scglu were located separately on chromosomes 4R and 2R, respectively. The dispersal of Bx-pathway loci to four distinct chromosomes in hexaploid wheat and rye suggests that the clustering of Bx-pathway genes, as found in maize, is not essential for coordinated transcription. On the other hand, barley (Hordeum vulgare) was found to lack the orthologous GT and glu loci like the Bx1 to Bx5 loci despite its close phylogenetic relationship with wheat and rye. These results contribute to our understanding of the evolutionary processes that the Bx-pathway loci have undergone in grasses.

The wheat (Triticum aestivum) and rye (Secale cereale) b-D-glucosidases hydrolyze hydroxamic acid-glucose conjugates, exist as different types of isozyme, and function as oligomers. In this study, three cDNAs encoding b-D-glucosidases (TaGlu1a, TaGlu1b, and TaGlu1c) were isolated from young wheat shoots. Although the TaGlu1s share very high sequence homology, the mRNA level of Taglu1c was much lower than the other two genes in 48-and 96-h-old wheat shoots. The expression ratio of each gene was different between two wheat cultivars. Recombinant TaGlu1b expressed in Escherichia coli was electrophoretically distinct fromTaGlu1a and TaGlu1c. Furthermore, coexpression of TaGlu1a and TaGlu1b gave seven bands on a native-PAGE gel, indicating the formation of both homo-and heterohexamers. One distinctive property of the wheat and rye glucosidases is that they function as hexamers but lose activity when dissociated into smaller oligomers or monomers. The crystal structure of hexameric TaGlu1b was determined at a resolution of 1.8 Å . The N-terminal region was located at the dimer-dimer interface and plays a crucial role in hexamer formation. Mutational analyses revealed that the aromatic side chain at position 378, which is located at the entrance to the catalytic center, plays an important role in substrate binding. Additionally, serine-464 and leucine-465 of TaGlu1a were shown to be critical in the relative specificity for DIMBOA-glucose (2-O-b-D-glucopyranosyl-4-hydroxy-7-methoxy-1,4-benzoxazin-3-one) over DIBOA-glucose (7-demethoxy-DIMBOA-glucose).b-D-Glucosidase (EC. 3.2.1.21) is a major member of the family GH1 and GH3 glycoside hydrolases and is responsible for hydrolysis of terminal non-reducing b-D-Glc residues in oligosaccharides (or polysaccharides) or glucoconjugates. In plants, b-D-glucosidases are involved in various functions, including lignification (Dharmawardhana et al., 1995), regulation of the biological activity of cytokinins (Brzobohatý et al