Olenieva V. The functional role of α-tubulin acetylation in the development of stress-induced autophagy in Arabidopsis thaliana

The role of post-translational acetylation of α-tubulin in the realization of stress-induced autophagy in A. thaliana cells was investigated. It was shown on the morphological, transcriptional and biochemical levels, that the development of autophagy is induced as a response to abiotic stress influence. It was found that an inhibition of stress-induced autophagy causes an intensification of programmed cell death development, which illustrates the role of autophagy as an adaptive mechanism. A significant increase in the level of acetylated a-tubulin was detected under the influence of abiotic stress. Moreover, it was shown that acetylation of α-tubulin provides a stronger interaction of tubulin with Atg8, an autophagy protein, which altogether confirms the functional role of microtubules in the realization of stress-induced autophagy. The regularities of the influence of stress factors on the expression of α-tubulin genes and the atg8, as well as on the enzymes involved in the acetylation of the tubulin (acetyltransferase elp3, deacetylases hda14 and hda6) have been established. The plant kinesins that are likely to be specific for the realization of stress-induced autophagy have been identified and the patterns of their expression under the influence of the abiotic factors were analyzed. Stress-induced α-tubulin acetylation was shown as a tissue-specific modification, which is most pronounced in young and meristic tissues, as well as in root tissues (root cap, epidermis and pericycles).