Scientists say that if they can understand the uncontrolled growth of plants, they believe they can find a cure for cancer.
If scientists can fully understand plant growth, they could find a cure for cancer
To increase agricultural yields, it is important to understand how plants process light. Plants use light to determine when they grow and flower. Plants find light through proteins called photoreceptors. However, understanding plants has impacts in fields other than agriculture. Ullas Pedmale, an assistant professor at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL), and colleagues have discovered how the UBP12 and UBP13 proteins regulate the activity of a CRY2 photoreceptor. Their finding could highlight new growth control strategies, with possible implications far beyond agriculture.
There are CRY photoreceptors in both plants and people. They are connected to a number of conditions such as diabetes, cancer and various brain disorders. CRY2 helps regulate growth in both people and plants. The uncontrolled development of plants reduces their viability, while causing cancer in humans. “If we understand growth,” says Pedmale, “we can cure cancer.”
Manipulation of CRY2 and UBP12 and UBP13 protein levels in Arabidopsis thaliana plants affects growth. The first floor on the left shows normal growth. The second floor lacks CRY2 and grew too much. The third floor lacked UBP12 and UBP13 and was made shorter. The fourth floor had high levels of UBP12 and UBP13, and the fifth had high levels of CRY2. Credit: Pedmale lab / CSHL, 2022
Plants need the right amount of CRY2 to know when they grow and flower. Pedmale and former postdoctoral fellow Louise Lindbäck discovered that manipulating UBP12 and UBP13 can change the amount of CRY2 in plants. They found that increasing UBP12 and UBP13 reduced CRY2 levels. This made the plants think that there was not enough light. In response, longer, abnormal stems grew to reach more. Pedmale says:
“We have a way of understanding growth here, and we could manipulate growth by just manipulating two proteins. We’ve found a way to increase flower production. You need flowering to eat. If there’s no flower, there’s no grain, no rice, neither wheat nor corn ”.
Pedmale and Lindbäck did not know exactly how UBP12 and UBP13 regulated CRY2. When the researchers looked closer, they made a startling discovery. In humans and other organisms, the UBP12 and UBP13 versions protect CRY photoreceptors from degradation. But on the floors, the team saw the opposite. In contrast, UBP12 and UBP13 helped to degrade CRY2. Lindbäck, who is currently a research and development engineer at Nordic Biomarker in Sweden, explains:
“From the literature, it is known that if you find an interaction like this, it will protect you from degradation. At first, we saw the opposite and thought, “okay, maybe I did something wrong,” but then when I did it a few times, we realized, “okay, that’s true.” Instead of protecting CRY2, it causes CRY2 to degrade.
Pedmale hopes his discovery will help researchers and plant breeders improve crop yields. He also hopes his work will help inform cancer research. “My CSHL colleagues are working hard to understand cancer,” he says. “We approach it from a different angle with plants.”
The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health.
Reference: “UBP12 and UBP13 deubiquitinases destabilize the CRY2 blue light receptor to regulate Arabidopsis growth” by Louise N. Lindbäck, Yuzhao Hu, Amanda Ackermann, Oliver Artz, and Ullas V. Pedmale, June 13, 2022, Current Biology. DOI: 10.1016 / j.cub.2022.05.046