Precursor processing for plant peptide hormone maturation by subtilisin-like serine proteinases

Prohormone processing by subtilases A flower that has gone to seed will drop its petals in a regulated process called abscission. Schardon et al. analyzed the production of the peptide hormone that regulates floral organ abscission in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. They used tissue-specific expression of proteinase inhibitors to identify the subtilisin-like proteinases that act as prohormone convertases required for peptide hormone production in plants. Science , this issue p. 1594