Research progress of the Elongator complex in plant

The Elongator complex consists of six subunits (ELP1-ELP6), where ELP1-ELP3 forms the core subcomplex and ELP4-ELP6 forms the auxiliary subcomplex. Deletion of any of the six subunits results in an almost identical phenotype, suggesting that all six subunits are essential for cellular function. All six subunits are evolutionarily conserved in terms of sequence and their interactions with other subunits. The most striking features are the structural conservation of the protein complexes and the phenotypic similarity caused by loss-of-function mutations in any protein subunit. Similar to elongation factors in translation, there is a strong interaction between the Elongator complex and RNA polymerase II during transcription. The Elongator complex is also involved in a variety of cellular pathways, including histone modification/acetylation, DNA methylation, tRNA nucleoside modification, etc. Here, we summarized the functions and mechanisms of the Elongator complex in plant growth and development, molecular pathways, and gene regulation. In this way, we aimed to provide a reference for an in-depth study of the Elongator complex.