SCAN:When a gene is worth two: Alternative splicing of an Arabidopsis membrane transporter

ITQB Scan Seminar

Title: When a gene is worth two: Alternative splicing of an Arabidopsis membrane transporter

Speaker: Paula Duque

Affiliation: Plant Molecular Biology group
Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (IGC)

Abstract:

The Major Facilitator Superfamily (MFS) is a wide class of membrane transporters found virtually in all living organisms, being the largest known group of active secondary carriers whose transport of a diverse range of small solutes is energized by chemiosmotic gradients. They are prevalent in plants; the Arabidopsis genome contains over 120 genes predicted to encode MFS membrane proteins, but very few have been characterized to date. Our functional analysis of an Arabidopsis thaliana MFS gene, ZIFL1, has revealed that its encoded transporter plays essential roles in both root polar auxin transport and drought stress tolerance. This dual function is determined by alternative splicing of the ZIFL1 pre-mRNA, which generates two transporters with similar activity but distinct tissue and subcellular localization: one isoform is targeted to the tonoplast of root cells and the other to the plasma membrane of stomatal guard cells.