Fluorescent castasterone reveals BRI1 signaling from the plasma membrane

Brassinosteroids (BRs) are plant growth hormones that bind the brassinosteroid receptor (BRI1) and activate its kinase domain. Exploration of BRI1-BR trafficking using a fluorescent brassinosteroid probe alongside chemical and genetic tools reveals that endocytosis pathways are essential for BR signaling attenuation and BRI1 turnover. Receptor-mediated endocytosis is an integral part of signal transduction as it mediates signal attenuation and provides spatial and temporal dimensions to signaling events. One of the best-studied leucine-rich repeat receptor–like kinases in plants, BRASSINOSTEROID INSENSITIVE 1 (BRI1), perceives its ligand, the brassinosteroid (BR) hormone, at the cell surface and is constitutively endocytosed. However, the importance of endocytosis for BR signaling remains unclear. Here we developed a bioactive, fluorescent BR analog, Alexa Fluor 647–castasterone (AFCS), and visualized the endocytosis of BRI1–AFCS complexes in living Arabidopsis thaliana cells. Impairment of endocytosis dependent on clathrin and the guanine nucleotide exchange factor for ARF GTPases (ARF-GEF) GNOM enhanced BR signaling by retaining active BRI1-ligand complexes at the plasma membrane. Increasing the trans -Golgi network/early endosome pool of BRI1–BR complexes did not affect BR signaling. Our findings provide what is to our knowledge the first visualization of receptor-ligand complexes in plants and reveal clathrin- and ARF-GEF–dependent endocytic regulation of BR signaling from the plasma membrane.