The plant proteins called ERECTA family play important role in inflorescence
architecture, stomatal patterning and phloem-xylem organization. ERECTA proteins
belong to the moonlighting proteins family containing the guanylyl cyclase (GC)
catalytic center embedded within the intracellular kinase domain. This
characteristic architecture of ERECTA proteins prompted us to experimentally
confirm of enzymatic activity of one of these, BdERL1 (ERECTA-like1 from
Brachypodium distachyon). We have shown that BdERL1 is dual-function
protein with both kinase and GC activity. Moreover, our mutagenesis studies also
revealed the catalytic roles of key conserved amino acid residues at the GC
center and importantly, probing of the kinase and GC with Ca
