Greta Jarck (Universität Osnabrück)
Greta Jarck's Master thesis was awarded with the Prize for the Best Plant Science Master Thesis, which was carried out at Osnabrück University in the year 2025 with the title:
Identifikation von Interaktionspartnern des Ethylen-Signalproteins EIN2 mittels Proximity Labelling (TurboID)
EIN2 as an interaction partner of PRT1
This study investigated the interaction between the central ethylene signalling pathway regulator EIN2 (ETHYLENE INSENSITIVE 2) and the E3 ubiquitin ligase PRT1 (PROTEOLYSIS 1, a component of the N-degron protein degradation pathway), providing new insights into the regulated degradation- and activation-mechanisms of EIN2 following ethylene perception.
As the central regulator of the ethylene signalling pathway, EIN2 connects hormonal signals with downstream regulatory processes that are possibly regulated by the ubiquitin ligase PRT1. To investigate this interaction, various fragments of EIN2 were cloned into a binary plant expression vector in order to subsequently perform interaction studies using TurboID, a widely used method for detecting protein-protein interactions. In addition, the stability of EIN2 was tested transiently in protoplasts of Arabidopsis thaliana and by infiltration in Nicotiana tabacum. Initial results in prt1 ein2 double mutants and in peptide arrays suggest that PRT1 recognises EIN2 fragments and could therefore also mark them for degradation. The following interaction studies could demonstrate a possible interaction, but also reveal further central interaction partners of EIN2.
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Greta Jarck conducted this work in the Department of Plant Physiology at the University of Osnabrück under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Nico Dissmeyer.