Understanding the role of protein interaction motifs in transcriptional regulators: implications for crop improvement.

Recently, the conjunction of disciplines such as developmental biology and proteomics enabled the dissection of diverse cellular processes, by analysis of their transcriptional regulatory pathways. In particular, it has been shown that transcription factor interactions play critical roles in the development of many complex traits and control cellular phenotypic plasticity, whereas protein phosphorylation modifications regulate protein activity at the posttranslational level. The present work posits that protein-protein interactions by functional motifs, as well as the phosphorylation state in these sites, are fundamental plant biological phenotype determinants, whose elucidation and understanding will allow manipulation of complex traits, thereby contributing to the design of novel methodologies for molecular breeders and plant physiologists.