Proteins are polyisoprenylated in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Isoprenoid lipids were found to be covalently linked to proteins of Arabidopsis thaliana. Their identity (polyprenols: Prenol-9–11 with Pren-10 dominating and dolichols: Dol-15–17 with Dol-16 dominating) was confirmed by means of HPLC/ESI-MS with application of the multiple reaction monitoring technique as well as metabolic labeling of Arabidopsis plants with [3H]mevalonate and other precursors. The occurrence of typical farnesol-, geranylgeraniol-, and phytol-modified proteins was also noted. Radioisotopic labeling allowed detection of several proteins that were covalently bound to mevalonate-derived isoprenoid alcohols. A significant portion of polyisoprenylated proteins was recovered in the cytosolic/light vesicular fraction of Arabidopsis cells upon subfractionation. Taken together our data prove that a subset of plant proteins is polyisoprenylated.