ASGSB 1998 Annual Meeting Abstracts

[46]
IMMUNOLOCALIZATION OF INTEGRIN-LIKE PROTEINS IN ARABIDOPSIS USING A SYNTHETIC RGDS-LIGAND.   L.J. Swatzell¹, R.E. Edelmann¹, C.A. Makaroff², and J.Z. Kiss¹. ¹Departments of Botany, and ²Chemistry/Biochemistry, Miami University, Oxford, OH 45056.

Integrins are a large family of integral membrane proteins that are involved in signal transduction in animal cells and tissues. Some experimental evidence suggests that plant cells also contain integrin-like proteins and that these proteins may be involved in signal transduction in gravitropism. Several researchers have attempted to localize integrin-like proteins in plants using antibodies raised in animals, despite the potential limitations of this approach. In this study, we compare results from localization of integrin-like proteins in Arabidopsis using a synthetic RGDS-ligand to localization of these proteins using a polyclonal antibody raised to a chicken ₁-integrin. These results demonstrate that use of the animal antibody to localize integrin-like proteins produces artifactual immunogold and immunofluorescence signal in plastids due to the high affinity of this antibody for polysaccharides. In addition, preliminary results suggest that use of synthetic ligands such as RGDS may provide a more efficient tool to localize integrin-like proteins in plants and to study their role within gravitropic perception, transduction, or response.

(Financial support was supplied by NASA through grant NAG 2-1017 to JZK and grant NGT 5-50041 to LJS.)

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