Plant physiology and its ability to respond to the ever-changing environment rely on cellular function. Particularly, the plant endomembrane system and trafficking among its compartments are pivotal for plant performance at the physiological level. In the endomembrane system, proteins and membranes traffic from one compartment to another. Such trafficking is highly dynamic and specific. Endomembrane trafficking is highly regulated for the abundance and activity of a diverse set of trafficking proteins which are in charge of packing cargo protein into vesicles/tubules, vesicle formation as well in their recognition and identity, and reception and fusion to a target compartment. The posttranslational regulation targets a set of trafficking proteins that result in turning on/off particular trafficking routes. Endomembrane trafficking is also regulated at the transcriptional level, particularly under physiological responses to environmental cues. We have looked for transcriptional regulators of endomembrane trafficking using system biology, genetics, and molecular biology strategies. We have found a set of transcription factors in which loss of function triggers impairment in endomembrane trafficking. Moreover, such mutants display different degrees of responses to changes in the nutrient and salinity content of the substrate. We are characterizing the involvement of such transcription factors in regulating endomembrane trafficking and unraveling the mechanism underneath. Such mechanisms would have an extreme relevance on plant physiology particularly to overcome detrimental environmental conditions.
Funding: FONDECYT 1211311