New insight into how Ethylene modulates translation dynamics in Arabidopsis under submergence via GCN2 and EIN2

General translational repression is a critical process in reducing energy consumption under hypoxia. However, how plants sense the hypoxic signal to control mRNA loading onto ribosomes is not clear for decades. To elucidate this challenge, a team led by Dr. Ming-Che Shih at Agricultural Biotechnology Research Center, Academia Sinica, unveiled that General Control Nonderepressible 2 (GCN2) and Ethylene Insensitive 2 (EIN2) are activated to modulate the translational repression through detection of passively entrapped ethylene under submergence (15 min) in Arabidopsis. Both GCN2 and EIN2 can regulate transcript levels and translation efficiency of specific mRNAs during submergence. Interestingly, GCN2 activity is triggered through a noncanonical ethylene signaling pathway, in which the activity of GCN2 is independent of EIN2 and EIN3/EIL1. Transgenic lines overexpressing GCN2 enhanced tolerance to submergence. This study shed new light on how plant cells sense and adapt to environmental stress and provided a further aspect to improving crop tolerance under stress. The study is published in the Science Advance.(https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/sciadv.abm7863)

Ming-Che Shih

HSING-YI CHO, MEI-YI CHOU, HSIU-YIN HO, WAN-CHIEH CHEN, AND MING-CHE SHIH (2022) New insight into how Ethylene modulates translation dynamics in Arabidopsis under submergence via GCN2 and EIN2 Science Advance, Vol 8, Issue 22