Self-Rejection: A New Kinase Connection

Goring and Walker examine the study of Murase et al on the report of a new player--the M locus protein kinase (MLPK)--in the self-incompatibility signaling pathaway of Brassica that raises an intriguing new aspect of plant signaling in which a receptor kinase may work with a nonreceptor kinase to activate the signal pathaway. Their examination shows that Murase et al's works present a new scenario in which receptor kinases cooperate with plasma membrane localized receptor-like cytoplasmic kinases and receptor-like kinases found in plant genomes. They stress that future studies will need to address the precise biochemical and cellular relationships among S receptor kinase, MLPK and ARCI in the plant self-incompatibility response.