CESA proteins form the catalytic subunits of the plant cellulose synthase complex. In higher plants, it is well established that three different members of the CESA protein family are required to synthesize cellulose. We have recently shown the CESA proteins are heavily modified by S-acylation and modifying the acylation of Arabidopsis CESA7 protein results in the cellulose synthase complex no longer being integrated into the plasma membrane. However, altering the acylation of CESA4 or CESA8 does not have the same effect, which prompted us to address the question of what determines the differences between the CESA proteins, also known as CESA protein class-specificity. We have used bioinformatics, mutagenesis and comprehensive domain swaps to examine this question. We find a consistent trend where cellulose synthesis appears to be more sensitive to altering certain CESA classes than others. We will discuss our data in terms of what this might mean for how CESA proteins are organized in the plasma membrane.

Functional differences between CESA protein classes

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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