Abstract
Receptor-like kinases comprise a large gene family in Arabidopsis genome and play important roles in plant growth and development as well as in hormone and stress responses. We identified a receptor-like cytosolic kinase gene, ABA-HYPERSENSITIVE RECEPTOR-LIKE CYTOSOLIC KINASE1 (ARCK1), which expression is induced during various stresses and ABA treatment. Expression of the ARCK1 promoter:GUS fused gene was detected in cotyledon under normal growth condition. The GUS activity was higher under high salt condition than that under control condition and detected in cotyledon and leaves. The ARCK1-sGFP protein was localized at plasma membrane. We analyzed phenotypes of ARCK1 knockout mutants, arck1-1 and arck1-2. The arck1 mutations did not affect plant morphology under normal growth condition, whereas they germinated slower than the wild type in ABA containing media. These results suggest that ARCK1 is induced by various stresses and might have a role in stress signal transduction pathway in Arabidopsis.
