Senior Research Fellow Jawaharlal Nehru University New Delhi, Delhi, India
Body of Abstract: In plants, the two-component system (TCS) is a histidine-to-aspartate phosphorelay-based signaling system. The rice genome contains a diverse TCS signaling machinery that includes 11 histidine kinases (OsHKs), 5 histidine phosphotransferases (OsHPTs), and 36 response regulators (OsRRs). However, under abiotic stress conditions, it is unknown how these TCS members interact with one another and comprehend diverse signaling cascades. The current study identified distinct arrays of interaction between various TCS proteins under salinity stress using in silico approaches, a highly stringent yeast two-hybrid (Y2H) platform, and a bi-fluorescence complementation assay. Based on these findings, an interactome map of TCS proteins was created. This map clearly shows signaling cross-talk mediated by different sensory OsHKs. It also emphasizes OsHPTs as interaction hubs, which interact with OsRRs in a mostly redundant manner. We present computational and experimental methods for building, analyzing, and deploying plant protein interactome networks under salinity stress. The interactome map presented here serves as a guiding line for in-depth molecular investigations of signal(s) transmitted by various TCS modules into various biological processes under salt stress condition.