Henning Mühlenbeck

eLife assessment This valuable paper presents a new protocol for quantifying tRNA aminoacylation levels by deep sequencing.

eLife assessment This manuscript reports important in vitro biochemical and in planta experiments to study the receptor activation mechanism of plant membrane receptor kinase complexes through the non-catalytic function of an active protein kinase.

Abstract Transmembrane signaling by plant receptor kinases (RKs) has long been thought to involve reciprocal trans-phosphorylation of their intracellular kinase domains. The fact that many of these are pseudokinase domains, however, suggests that additional mechanisms must govern RK signaling activation. Non-catalytic (pseudo)kinase signaling mechanisms have been described in metazoans, but information is scarce for plants.