ABA inhibits myristoylation and induces shuttling of the RGLG1 E3 ligase to promote nuclear degradation of PP2CA

Abstract

[EN] Hormone- and stress-induced shuttling of signaling or regulatory proteins is an important cellular mechanism to modulate hormone signaling and cope with abiotic stress. Hormone-induced ubiquitination plays a crucial role to determine half-life of key negative regulators of hormone signaling. For ABA signaling, degradation of clade A PP2Cs, such as PP2CA or ABI1, is a complementary mechanism to PYR/PYL/RCAR-mediated inhibition of PP2C activity. ABA promotes the degradation of PP2CA through the RGLG1 E3 ligase, although it is not known how ABA enhances the interaction of RGLG1 with PP2CA given they are predominantly found in plasma membrane and nucleus, respectively. We demonstrate that ABA modifies the subcellular localization of RGLG1 and promotes nuclear interaction with PP2CA. We found RGLG1 is myristoylated in vivo, which facilitates its attachment to plasma membrane. ABA inhibits myristoylation of RGLG1 through downregulation of Nmyristoyltransferase1 (NMT1) and promotes nuclear translocation of RGLG1 in a cycloheximide-insensitive manner. Enhanced nuclear recruitment of the E3 ligase was also promoted by increasing PP2CA protein levels and the formation of RGLG1-receptor-phosphatase complexes. We show that RGLG1Gly2Ala -mutated in the Nterminal myristoylation site- shows constitutive nuclear localization and causes enhanced response to ABA and salt/osmotic stress. RGLG1/5 can interact with certain monomeric ABA receptors, which facilitates the formation of nuclear complexes such as RGLG1-PP2CA-PYL8. In summary, we provide evidence that an E3 ligase can dynamically re-localize in response to both ABA and increased levels of its target, which reveals a mechanism to explain how ABA enhances RGLG1-PP2CA interaction and hence PP2CA degradation.