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Abstract Proteolysis, including post-translational proteolytic processing as well as protein degradation and amino acid recycling, is an essential component of the growth and development of living organisms. In this article, experts in plant proteolysis pose and discuss compelling open questions in their areas of research. Topics covered include the role of proteolysis in the cell cycle, DNA damage response, mitochondrial function, the generation of N-terminal signals (degrons) that mark many proteins for degradation (N-terminal acetylation, the Arg/N-degron pathway, and the chloroplast N-degron pathway), developmental and metabolic signaling (photomorphogenesis, abscisic acid and strigolactone signaling, sugar metabolism, and postharvest regulation), plant responses to environmental signals (endoplasmic-reticulum-associated degradation, chloroplast-associated degradation, drought tolerance, and the growth-defense trade-off), and the functional diversification of peptidases. We hope these thought-provoking discussions help to stimulate further research. 

Summary DNA methylation plays crucial roles in cellular development and stress responses through gene regulation and genome stability control. Precise regulation of DOMAINS REARRANGED METHYLTRANSFERASE 2 (DRM2), thede novoArabidopsis DNA methyltransferase, is crucial to maintain DNA methylation homeostasis to ensure genome integrity. Compared with the extensive studies on DRM2 targeting mechanisms, little information is known regarding the quality control of DRM2 itself.Here, we conducted yeast two‐hybrid screen assay and identified an E3 ligase, COP9 INTERACTING F‐BOX KELCH 1 (CFK1), as a novel DRM2‐interacting partner and targets DRM2 for degradation via the ubiquitin‐26S proteasome pathway inArabidopsis thaliana. We also performed whole genome bisulfite sequencing (BS‐seq) to determine the biological significance of CFK1‐mediated DRM2 degradation.Loss‐of‐functionCFK1leads to increased DRM2 protein abundance and overexpression of CFK1 showed reduced DRM2 protein levels. Consistently, CFK1 overexpression induces genome‐wide CHH hypomethylation and transcriptional de‐repression at specific DRM2 target loci.This study uncovered a distinct mechanism regulatingde novoDNA methyltransferase by CFK1 to control DNA methylation level.