PROSITE documentation PDOC00285

Dehydrins signatures

A number of proteins are produced by plants that experience water-stress. Water-stress takes place when the water available to a plant falls below a critical level. The plant hormone abscisic acid (ABA) appears to modulate the response of plant to water-stress. Proteins that are expressed during water-stress are called dehydrins [1,2] or LEA group 2 proteins [3]. The proteins that belong to this family are listed below.

• Arabidopsis thaliana XERO 1, XERO 2 (LTI30), RAB18, ERD10 (LTI45) ERD14 and COR47.
• Barley dehydrins B8, B9, B17, and B18.
• Cotton LEA protein D-11.
• Craterostigma plantagineum dessication-related proteins A and B.
• Maize dehydrin M3 (RAB-17).
• Pea dehydrins DHN1, DHN2, and DHN3.
• Radish LEA protein.
• Rice proteins RAB 16B, 16C, 16D, RAB21, and RAB25.
• Tomato TAS14.
• Wheat dehydrin RAB 15 and cold-shock protein cor410, cs66 and cs120.

Dehydrins share a number of structural features. One of the most notable features is the presence, in their central region, of a continuous run of five to nine serines followed by a cluster of charged residues. Such a region has been found in all known dehydrins so far with the exception of pea dehydrins. A second conserved feature is the presence of two copies of a lysine-rich octapeptide; the first copy is located just after the cluster of charged residues that follows the poly-serine region and the second copy is found at the C-terminal extremity. We have have derived signature patterns for both regions.