Involvement of Target of Rapamycin (TOR) Signaling in the Regulation of Crosstalk between Ribosomal Protein Small Subunit 6 Kinase-1 (RPS6K-1) and Ribosomal Proteins

The target of rapamycin (TOR) protein phosphorylates its downstream effector p70kDa ribosomal protein S6 kinases (S6K1) for ribosome biogenesis and translation initiation in eukaryotes. However, the molecular mechanism of TOR-S6K1-ribosomal protein (RP) signaling is not well understood in plants. In the present study, we report the transcriptional upregulation of ribosomal protein large and small subunit ( and ) genes in the previously established overexpressing transgenic lines of rice (in ssp. , variety BPT-5204, TR-2.24 and TR-15.1) and of (in Col 0 ecotype, ATR-1.4.27 and ATR-3.7.32). The mRNA levels of genes from this study were compared with those previously available in transcriptomic datasets on the expression of s in relation to TOR inhibitor and in the -RNAi lines of . We further analyzed TOR activity, i.e., S6K1 phosphorylation in SALK lines of Arabidopsis with mutation in , , , and where the mutant showed inactivation of S6K1 phosphorylation. We also predicted similar putative Ser/Thr phosphorylation sites for ribosomal S6 kinases (RSKs) in the RPs of ssp. and The findings of this study indicate that the TOR pathway is possibly interlinked in a cyclic manner via the phosphorylation of S6K1 as a modulatory step for the regulation of RP function to switch 'on'/'off' the translational regulation for balanced plant growth.