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New Hot Paper Comments

By Joanne Chory

ESI Special Topics, May 2003
Citing URL - http://www.esi-topics.com/nhp/2003/may-03-JoanneChory.html

Joanne Chory answers a few questions about this month's new hot paper in the field of Plant & Animal Science.

From •>>May 2003

Field: Plant & Animal Science
 Article Title: "BRI1 is a critical component of a plasma-membrane receptor for plant steroids"
 Authors: Wang, ZY;Seto, H;Fujioka, S;Yoshida, S;Chory, J
Journal: NATURE
Volume: 410
Page: 380-383
Year: MAR 15 2001
* Salk Inst Biol Studies, Howard Hughes Med Inst, 10010 N Torrey Pines Rd, La Jolla, CA 92037 USA.
* Salk Inst Biol Studies, Howard Hughes Med Inst, La Jolla, CA 92037 USA.
* Salk Inst Biol Studies, Plant Biol Lab, La Jolla, CA 92037 USA.
* RIKEN, Inst Phys & Chem Res, Plant Funct Lab, Wako, Saitama 3510198, Japan.

ST:  Why do you think your paper is highly cited?

Very few ligand-receptor interactions have been described in plant systems. As such, this paper is a significant addition to the plant signal transduction literature.

ST:  Does it describe a new discovery or a new methodology that’s useful to others?

The paper shows for the first time that steroid hormones can be perceived by receptors at the cell surface. This had been hypothesized for a long time in animal systems, without any strong data to support the hypothesis.

ST:  Could you summarize the significance of your paper in layman’s terms?

Our paper describes a new paradigm for steroid perception.

ST:  How did you become involved in this research?

We had been studying how plants respond to light using a genetic approach to the reference plant, Arabidopsis. Several of the mutants that came out of our original screens turned out to define genes involved in steroid biosynthesis, metabolism or signaling. We just followed where the genetics led us.End

Joanne Chory
Professor, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies
Associate Investigator, Plant Biology Laboratory
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
La Jolla, CA, USA

Joanne Chory is among the top 20 authors for the special topic of Arabidopsis and Plant Disease Resistance.

ESI Special Topics, May 2003
Citing URL - http://www.esi-topics.com/nhp/2003/may-03-JoanneChory.html

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