Self-association and multimer formation in AtLEA4-5, a desiccation-induced intrinsically disordered protein from plants.

ABSTRACT: During seed maturation, plants may experience severe desiccation, leading to the accumulation of late embryogenesis abundant (LEA) proteins. These intrinsically disordered proteins also accumulate in plant tissues under water deficit. Functional roles of LEA proteins have been proposed based on in vitro studies, where monomers are considered as the functional units. However, the potential formation of homo-oligomers has been little explored. In this work, we investigated the potential self-association of Arabidopsis thaliana group 4 LEA proteins (AtLEA4) using in vitro and in vivo approaches. LEA4 proteins represent a compelling case of study due to their high conservation throughout the plant kingdom. This protein family is characterized by a conserved N-terminal region, with a high alpha

SUBMITTER: Romero-Perez PS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11516066 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature