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Grégory Vert - Directeur de Recherche CNRS - Institute for Integrative Biology of the Cell (I2BC), Gif-sur-Yvette

Plants have evolved sophisticated strategies to constantly monitor and respond to ever changing environmental conditions by adjusting their growth and development. My lab has long been studying the regulatory mechanisms allowing plants to fine tune and integrate signaling pathways to create robust responses to both endogenous and exogenous cues. Ubiquitin-dependent processes play a paramount role in the control of basic cellular processes and in the regulation of signaling pathways. Except for lysine-48-linked polyubiquitin chains, which mediate proteasome-dependent degradation, our knowledge about all other types of post-translational modifications involving ubiquitin is still scarce. Over the past few years, my lab has been deconstructing the networks and role(s) of the second most abundant and yet poorly-characterized ubiquitin form using plants as model. We have initiated the identification of the machinery driving the formation of lysine-63 polyubiquitin chains, and have characterized the prominent role of K63 polyubiquitination in the dynamics of plant cell-surface proteins and its contribution to growth and development in the context of a fluctuating environment.