{"doi":"10.1073/pnas.2519924122","title":"Unusually broad-spectrum small-molecule sensing using a single protein scaffold","abstract":"Small-molecule sensing in plants is dominated by chemical-induced dimerization modules. In the abscisic acid (ABA) system, allosteric receptors recruit phosphatase effectors and achieve nM in vivo responses from µM receptor-ligand interactions. This sensitivity amplification could enable ABA receptors to serve as generic scaffolds for designing small-molecule sensors. To test this, we screened collections of mutant ABA-receptors against 2,726 drugs and other ligands and identified 553 sensors for 6.6% of these ligands. The mutational patterns indicate strong selection for ligand-specific binding pockets. We used these data to develop a sensor design pipeline and isolated sensors for multiple plant natural products, 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT), and \"forever\" per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Thus, the ABA sensor system enables design and isolation of small-molecule sensors with broad chemical scope and antibody-like simplicity.","journal":"Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences","year":2025,"id":515378,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":6,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9544,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":850076,"name":"Jesús Beltrán","orcid":"0000-0001-8804-3125","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":631056,"name":"W George","orcid":"0000-0003-4632-2294","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1096473,"name":"Chase Lenert-Mondou","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1380253,"name":"Norman Seder","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1380254,"name":"Zoe I. Davis","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1379672,"name":"Samuel D. Swift","orcid":"0000-0001-5154-572X","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":331395,"name":"Thomas Girke","orcid":"0000-0003-0710-3777","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":412244,"name":"Timothy A. Whitehead","orcid":"0000-0003-3177-1361","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":412252,"name":"Ian Wheeldon","orcid":"0000-0002-3492-7539","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":782902,"name":"Sean R. Cutler","orcid":"0000-0002-8593-0885","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1379671,"name":"Hao Tian","orcid":"0000-0003-4980-1434","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":41,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:48:39.436300Z","pmid":"41397125","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}