6533b86efe1ef96bd12cb68e

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Identification and characterization of an ABA-activated MAP kinase cascade in Arabidopsis thaliana.

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†These authors contributed equally to the work. Accession numbers Sequence data from this article can be found in Arabidopsis Genome Initiative or GenBank/EMBL databases under the following accession numbers: At1g10210 (MPK1), At1g59580 (MPK2), At2g43790 (MPK6), At2g18170 (MPK7), At1g18150 (MPK8), At4g36450 (MPK14), At5g40440 (MKK3), At2g32510 (MAP3K17) and At1g05100 (MAP3K18). SUMMARY Abscisic acid (ABA) is a major phytohormone involved in important stress-related and developmental plant processes. Recent phosphoproteomic analyses revealed a large set of ABA-triggered phosphoproteins as putative mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) targets, although the evidence for MAPKs involved in ABA signalling is still scarce. Here, we identified and reconstituted in vivo a complete ABA-activated MAPK cascade, composed of the MAP3Ks MAP3K17/18, the MAP2K MKK3 and the four C group MAPKs MPK1/2/7/ 14. In planta, we show that ABA activation of MPK7 is blocked in mkk3-1 and map3k17mapk3k18 plants. Coherently, both mutants exhibit hypersensitivity to ABA and altered expression of a set of ABA-dependent genes. A genetic analysis further reveals that this MAPK cascade is activated by the PYR/PYL/RCAR-SnRK2PP2C ABA core signalling module through protein synthesis of the MAP3Ks, unveiling an atypical mechanism for MAPK activation in eukaryotes. Our work provides evidence for a role of an ABA-induced MAPK pathway in plant stress signalling.