Prof. Shaul Yalovsky

Shaul Yalovsky studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem where he obtained his PhD. From 1993-1999 he carried out postdoctoral research at UC Berkeley before starting his lab at Tel Aviv University. As of 2010 Shaul is a Full Professor. From 2013 to 2016 Shaul was the head of the Department of Plant Sciences. He was a vising Professor at the ETH, Zurich in 2007, at UC Berkeley in 2009 and at Institute Jean-Pierre Bourgin, INRAE, Versailles in 2017.

As of 2020 Shaul is the head of the Peking University Institute of Advanced Agricultural Sciences – Tel Aviv University joint PhD program. In addition to his academic and administrative roles at Tel Aviv University, Shaul serves as a monitoring editor in Plant Physiology since 2005 and as an associate editor in Molecular Plant since 2015.

The lab focuses on signaling by Rho of Plants (ROP) GTPases and their effectors in cell polarity and abiotic stress responses. In particular our studies focus on subcellular targeting of ROPs and their partitioning into plasma membrane microdomains, the formation of self-organizing ROP activity domains, the function of the ICR family of ROP interacting proteins, the function of ROPs and ABA in regulation of xylem patterning and the role of ROPs in ABA signaling and ROS formation.

Our major research achievements include:

1) The identification of the lipid modifications required for targeting ROPs to the plasma membrane.

 2) The discovery that in addition to GDP/GTP exchange, ROP activation involves transient S-acylation and partitioning into plasma membrane microdomains.

3) The finding that formation of self-organizing ROP activity domains involves GEF-dependent reduced mobile populations.

4) The discovery of the ICR family of ROP interacting proteins and their function as both microtubules associated proteins and scaffolds which mediate the interaction of ROPs with different proteins.

5) The identification of the mechanism underlying the regulation of stomata aperture by ROPs, and the potential use of ROPs for improving water use efficiency.

6) The discovery that ABA regulates root maturation, xylem patterning and lateral root growth via endodermal initials dependent microRNAs.

7) The pioneering, together with the lab of Nir Ohad, of utilizing Bimolecular Fluorescence Complementation (BiFC) for detection of protein-protein interaction in plants.

Hasana Sternberg, Ella Buriakovsky, Daria Bloch, Orit Gutman, Yoav I. Henis and Shaul Yalovsky. Formation of self-organizing functionally distinct Rho of plants domains involves a reduced mobile population. Plant Physiology, Vol, 2021, (pp. ) doi: 10.1093/plphys/kiab385

Feiguelman, G. and Yalovsky, S. ARMADILLOs delimit Rho signalling. Nature Plants, Vol 6, 2020, (pp. 12012-1202). doi: 10.1038/s41477-020-00791-z

Bloch, D., Puli, M. R., Mosquna, A. and Yalovsky, S.. Abiotic stress modulates root patterning via ABA-regulated microRNA expression in the endodermis initials. Development, Vol 146, 2019, (pp. dev177097). doi:10.1242/dev.177097

Hazak, O., Mamon, E., Lavy, M., Sternberg, H., Behera, S., Schmitz-Thom, I., Bloch, D., Dementiev, O., Gutman, I., Danziger, T., Schwarz, N., Abuzeineh, A., Mockaitis, K. Estelle, M., Hirsch, J. A., Kudla, J. and Yalovsky, S. A novel Ca^2+-binding protein that can rapidly transduce auxin responses during root growth. PLoS Biology, Vol 17, 2019, (pp.e3000085). doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3000085

Feiguelman, G. Fu, Y. and Yalovsky, S. ROP GTPases structure-function and signaling pathways. Plant Physiology, Vol 176, 2018 (pp. 57-79), doi: 10.1104/pp.17.01415

Sorek, N., Poraty, L., Sternberg, H., Buriakovsky, E., Bar, E., Lewinsohn, E.and Yalovsky, S. Corrected and republished from: Activation Status-Coupled Transient S-Acylation Determines Membrane Partitioning of a Plant Rho-Related GTPase. Molecular and Cellular Biology, Vol 37, 2017 (online: pp. e00333-17) doi: 10.1128/MCB.00333-17

Bloch, D., Pleskot, R., Pejchar, P., Potocký, M., Trpkošová, P., Cwiklik, L., Vukašinovic, N., Sternberg, H., Yalovsky, S. and Zarsky, V. Exocyst SEC3 and phosphoinositides define sites of exocytosis in pollen tube initiation and growth. Plant Physiology, Vol 172, 2016 (pp. 980-1002), doi: 10.1104/pp.16.00690

Hazak, O., Obolski, U., Prat, T., Friml, J., Hadany, L. and Yalovsky, S. Bimodal regulation of ICR1 levels generates self-organizing auxin distribution. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, Vol 111, 2014, (pp. E5471-E5479).

Bloch, D. and Yalvsky, S. Cell Polarity Signaling. Current Opinion in Plant Biology, Vol 16, 2013, (pp. 734-742).

Poraty-Gavra, L., Zimmermann, P., Haigis, S., Bednarek, P., Hazak, O., Stelmakh, O.R., Sadot, E., Schulze-Lefert, P., Gruissem, W., and Yalovsky, S., The Arabidopsis Rho of Plants GTPase AtROP6 Functions in Developmental and Pathogen Response Pathways. Plant Physiology, Vol 161, 2013 (pp. 1172-1188).

Batistič, O., Rehers, M. Akerman, A., Steinhorst, L., Schlücking, K. Yalovsky, S. and Kudla, J.. S-acylation dependent association of the calcium sensor CBL2 with the vacuolar membrane is essential for proper abscisic acid responses. Cell Research, Vol 22, 2012, (pp. 1155-1168).

Sorek, N. Gutman, O., Bar, E., Abu-Abied, M., Feng, X., Mark P. Running, M. P., Lewinsohn, E., Ori, N., Sadot, E., Henis, Y. I. and Shaul Yalovsky, S., Differential effects of prenylation and S-acylation on type-I and II ROPs membrane interaction and function. Plant Physiology, Vol 155, 2011, (pp. 706-720).

Bloch, D., Monshausen, G., Singer, M., Gilroy, S. and Yalovsky, S., Nitrogen source interacts with ROP signaling in root hair tip-growth. Plant Cell and Environment, Vol 34, 2011, (pp. 76-88).

Sorek, N., Segev, O., Gutman, O., Bar, E., Richter, S., Poraty, L., Hirsch, J. A., Henis, Y. I., Lewinsohn, E., Jürgens, G. and Yalovsky, S., An S-acylation switch of conserved G-domain cysteines is required for polarity signaling by ROP GTPases. Current Biology, Vol 20, 2010, (pp. 914-920).

Sorek, N. and Yalovsky, S., Analysis of protein S-acylation by gas chromatography–coupled mass spectrometry using purified proteins. Nature Protocols, 2010, Vol 5. (pp. 842-848).

Hazak, O., Bloch, D., Poraty, L., Sternberg, H., Zhang, J., Friml, J. and Yalovsky, S., A rho scaffold integrates the secretory system with feedback mechanisms in regulation of auxin distribution. PLoS Biology, Vol 2010 (pp. e1000282).

Sorek, N., Bloch, D. and Yalovsky, S., Protein lipid modifications in signaling and subcellular targeting. Current Opinion in Plant Biology, Vol 12, 2009 (pp. 714-720).

Yalovsky, S., Bloch, D., Sorek, N. and Kost, B., Regulation of membrane trafficking, cytoskeleton dynamics and cell polarity by ROP/RAC GTPases. Plant Physiology, Vol 147, 2008, (pp. 1527-1543).

Batistič, O., Sorek, N., Schültke, S., Yalovsky, S. and Kudla, J., Dual fatty acyl modification determines the localization and plasma membrane targeting of CBL/CIPK Ca²⁺ signaling complexes. The Plant Cell, Vol 20, 2008, (pp. 1346-1362).

Baerenfaller, K., Grossmann, J., Grobei, M. A. Hull, R., Hirsch-Hoffmann, M., Yalovsky, S., Zimmermann, P., Grossniklaus, U., Gruissem, W. and Baginsky, S., Genome-scale proteomics reveals new Arabidopsis thaliana gene models and proteome dynamics. Science, Vol 320, 2008 (pp. 938-941).

Ohad, N., Shichrur, K., and Yalovsky, S., The analysis of protein-protein interactions in plants by Bimolecular Fluorescence Complementation (BiFC). Plant Physiology, Vol 145, 2007 (pp.1090-1099).

Lavy, M., Bloch, D., Hasak, O., Gutman, I., Poraty, L., Sorek, N., Sternberg, H. and Yalovsky, S., A novel ROP/RAC effector links cell polarity root meristem maintenance and vesicle trafficking. Current Biology, Vol 17, 2007 (pp. 947-952).

Lavy, M and Yalovsky, S., Association of Arabidopsis type-II ROPs with the plasma membrane requires a conserved C-terminal sequence motif and a proximal polybasic domain. The Plant Journal, Vol 46 2006 (pp. 934-947).

Bloch, D., Lavy, M., Efrat, Y., Efroni, I., Bracha-Drori, K., Abu-Abied, M., Sadot, E. and Yalovsky, S., Ectopic expression of an activated RAC in Arabidopsis disrupts membrane cycling. Molecular Biology of the Cell, Vol 16 2005 (pp. 1913-1927).

Bracha-Drori, K., Shichrur, K., Katz, A., Oliva, M., Angelovici, R., Yalovsky, S. and Ohad, N., Detection of protein-protein interaction in plants using YFP fluorescence complementation. The Plant Journal, Vol 40 2004 (pp. 419-427).

Mark P. Running, M.P. Lavy, M., Sternberg, H., Galichet, A., Gruissem, W., Hake, S., Ori, N. and Yalovsky, S., Enlarged meristems and delayed growth in plp mutants result from lack of CaaX prenyltransferases. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, Vol 101 2004 (pp. 7815-7820).

Lavy, M., Bracha-Drori, K., Sternberg, H. and Yalovsky, S. Cell-specific prenylation independent mechanism regulates targeting of type-II RACs. The Plant Cell, Vol 14 2002 (pp. 2431-2450).