Effectors of RAB GTPases and their role in plant secretion

Rab GTPases are small signaling molecules that play an important role in vesicle trafficking in eukaryotic cells. Correct signaling through small GTPases allows orchestration of vesicle transport among cellular organelles and also to the cell wall providing cell wall material for cell growth and elongation. Engagement of Rab GTPases in the regulation of endomembrane trafficking is one of the evolutionary conserved aspects of secretion regulation. The network of Rab GTPases interaction includes also various downstream effectors. One of them is the exocyst complex involved in vesicle docking at the plasma membrane. It is a complex composed of eight different subunits (Sec3, Sec5, Sec6, Sec8, Sec10, Sec15, Exo70 and Exo84). Exocyst was discovered as Sec4p Rab GTPase effector in yeast and also data from animal models describe the Sec15 exocyst subunit as the Rab-interacting partner, but data from plants are missing. On the other hand, numerous studies identified exocyst role in tip growth of pollen tube and root hairs, seed coat formation, cell plate and cell wall formation, hypocotyl elongation, and importantly also PIN auxin efflux carriers recycling and polar auxin transport. There are two paralogues of SEC15 in the Arabidopsis genome, SEC15a and SEC15b, the previous one already shown to be..