Structural insights into how vacuolar sorting receptors recognize the sorting determinants of seed storage proteins
Hsi‐En Tsao, Shu Nga Lui, Anthony Hiu‐Fung Lo, Shuai Chen, Hiu Yan Wong, Chi-Kin Wong, Liwen Jiang, Kam‐Bo Wong
Abstract
Significance Seeds such as rice and soybean are major food staples in the human diet. During seed development, storage proteins are deposited in a specialized organelle called the protein storage vacuole and are mobilized to provide nutrients during germination. Storage proteins are transported as cargoes via specific protein–protein interactions with the vacuolar sorting receptors. Supported by structural and mutagenesis studies, our work provides insights into how the sequence-specific information, or the vacuolar sorting determinant, on the storage proteins is recognized by the vacuolar sorting receptors for their targeting to the vacuoles. Insights gained into the rules of receptor–cargo recognition will be useful in engineering recombinant proteins for biotechnological applications of the protein storage vacuoles in seeds.