Research Papers

Plants are highly adapted to respond to a range of environmental stresses commonly by altering their gene expression and metabolism as a result of cell signalling which may be mediated by reactive oxygen species. The glycine-rich RNA-binding proteins ATGRP7 and ATGRP8 were rapidly upregulated in response to peroxide-induced oxidative stress and were amongst the most abundant RNA binding proteins isolated by oligo(dT) chromatography. The oligo(dT)-bound mRNP complexes were analysed proteomically, and were seen to contain potential isoforms of the ATGRP proteins; other proteins that contain an RNA Recognition Motif (RRM); and chloroplast RNA binding proteins. These findings suggest that ATGRP proteins have an evolutionarily conserved function in the regulation of gene expression at the posttranscriptional level in response to environmental stress.