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Nitrogen storage regulation by PII protein: lessons learned from taxonomic outliers
Author(s) -
Rubio Vicente,
MarcoMarín Clara,
Llácer José Luis
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
the febs journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.981
H-Index - 204
eISSN - 1742-4658
pISSN - 1742-464X
DOI - 10.1111/febs.15189
Subject(s) - glutamine synthetase , effector , biology , enzyme , biochemistry , glutamine , photosynthesis , amino acid
The paper ‘Interaction of N ‐acetyl‐ l ‐glutamate kinase with the PII signal transducer in the non‐photosynthetic alga Polytomella parva : Co‐evolution towards a hetero‐oligomeric enzyme’ by Selim et al . highlights how the study of a true taxonomic oddity, the heterotrophic unicellular alga P. parva , has been instrumental in uncovering the large potential for adaptive variation in the signaling complex of PII with the enzyme N ‐acetylglutamate kinase (NAGK). This complex modifies the regulatory properties of NAGK, allowing nitrogen stockpiling as arginine. In P. parva , a stable PII‐NAGK complex is formed which lacks regulation by canonical PII effectors but which exhibits novel adaptive responses to nitrogen abundance mediated by glutamine, a neo‐effector of PII proteins of photosynthetic eukaryotes.