What's unique? - The unfolded protein response (UPR) in plants.

The investigation of a phenomenon called the unfolded protein response (UPR) started approximately 3 decades ago, and we now know that the UPR is involved in a number of cellular events among metazoans, higher plants, and algae. The relevance of the UPR in human diseases featuring protein folding defects, such as Alzheimer's and Huntington's diseases, has drawn much attention to the response in medical research to date. While metazoans and plants share similar molecular mechanisms of the UPR, recent studies shed light on the uniqueness of the plant UPR, with the plant-specific protein families appearing to play pivotal roles. Given the considerable emphasis on the original discoveries of key factors in metazoans, this mini review aims to highlight the uniqueness of the plant UPR based on recent publications.