Free Standard AU & NZ Shipping For All Book Orders Over $80!
Register      Login
Functional Plant Biology Functional Plant Biology Society
Plant function and evolutionary biology
Shopping Cart: ( empty )
You are here: Home > Journals > FP > FP09100
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Contents Vol 37(1)

The cotton dehydration-responsive element binding protein GhDBP1 contains an EAR-motif and is involved in the defense response of Arabidopsis to salinity stress

Chun-Juan Dong A , Bo Huang A and Jin-Yuan Liu A B
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Laboratory of Molecular Biology and MOE Laboratory of Protein Science, Department of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.

B Corresponding author. Email: liujy@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn

Functional Plant Biology 37(1) 64-73 https://doi.org/10.1071/FP09100
Submitted: 6 May 2009  Accepted: 8 September 2009   Published: 5 January 2010

Abstract

Our previous work reported that cotton dehydration-responsive element (DRE) binding protein 1 (GhDBP1) could function as an active transcriptional repressor for DRE-mediated gene expression. However, the repression mechanism utilised by GhDBP1 was unclear. In this report, we demonstrate that GhDBP1’s transcriptional repression domain is located at the C-terminus, and is known as an ERF-associated amphiphilic repression (EAR)-motif. Furthermore, the amino acid residues aspartic acid (D), leucine (L), asparagine (N) and proline (P) are conserved in the EAR-motif, and were found to be necessary for repression through mutational analysis. In addition, our promoter assays demonstrated a dehydration-induced and rehydration-repressed expression pattern of GhDBP1. Transgenic Arabidopsis plants overexpressing GhDBP1 were more sensitive to high salinity stress and appeared to downregulate the expression levels of the stress-induced effecter genes. Taken together, our findings provide an important insight into GhDBP1’s potential molecular repression mechanism and how it is involved in plant stress responses.

Additional keywords: DRE-binding protein, Gossypium hirsutum, high salinity, transcriptional repressor, transgenic Arabidopsis.


Acknowledgements

We thank the editors and reviewers for their critical reading and constructive suggestions. This work was supported by grants from the National Transgenic Animals and Plants Research Project (2008ZX08009–003 and 2008ZX08005–003), the State Key Basic Research and Development Plan of China (2006CB101706 and 2004CB117303) and the Hi-Tech Research and Development Program of China (Grant no. 2004AA222100, 2002AA212051 and 2002AA207006).


References


Baker SS, Wilhelm KS, Thomashow MF (1994) The 5′-region of Arabidopsis thaliana cor15a has cis-acting elements that confer cold-, drought- and ABA-regulated gene expression. Plant Molecular Biology 24, 701–713.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | PubMed | open url image1

Chen M, Wang QY, Cheng XG, Xu ZS, Li LC, Ye XG, Xia LQ, Ma YZ (2007) GmDREB2, a soybean DRE-binding transcription factor, conferred drought and high-salt tolerance in transgenic plants. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications 353, 299–305.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | PubMed | open url image1

Chen M, Xu Z, Xia L, Li L, Cheng X, Dong J, Wang Q, Ma Y (2009) Cold-induced modulation and functional analyses of the DRE-binding transcription factor gene, GmDREB3, in soybean (Glycine max L.). Journal of Experimental Botany 60, 121–135.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | PubMed | open url image1

Chern M, Canlas PE, Fitzgerald HA, Ronald PC (2005) Rice NRR, a negative regulator of disease resistance, interacts with Arabidopsis NPR1 and rice NH1. The Plant Journal 43, 623–635.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | PubMed | open url image1

Ciftci-Yilmaz S, Morsy MR, Song L, Coutu A, Krizek BA, Lewis MW, Warren D, Cushman J, Connolly EL, Mittler R (2007) The EAR-motif of the Cys2/His2-type zinc finger protein Zat7 plays a key role in the defense response of Arabidopsis to salinity stress. Journal of Biological Chemistry 282, 9260–9268.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | PubMed | open url image1

Clough SJ, Bent AF (1998) Floral-dip: a simplified method for Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of Arabidopsis thaliana. The Plant Journal 16, 735–743.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | PubMed | open url image1

Gaston K, Jayaraman PS (2003) Transcriptional repression in eukaryotes: repressors and repression mechanisms. Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences 60, 721–741.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | PubMed | open url image1

Gilmour SJ, Zarka DG, Stockinger EJ, Salazar MP, Houghton JM, Thomashow MF (1998) Low temperature regulation of the Arabidopsis CBF family of AP2 transcriptional activators as an early step in cold-induced COR gene expression. The Plant Journal 16, 433–442.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | PubMed | open url image1

Haake V, Cook D, Riechmann JL, Pineda O, Thomashow MF, Zhang JZ (2002) Transcription factor CBF4 is a regulator of drought adaptation in Arabidopsis. Plant Physiology 130, 639–648.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | PubMed | open url image1

Hanna-Rose W, Hansen U (1996) Active repression mechanisms of eukaryotic transcription repressors. Trends in Genetics 12, 229–234.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | PubMed | open url image1

Higo K, Ugawa Y, Iwamoto M, Korenaga T (1999) Plant cis-acting regulatory DNA elements (PLACE) database. Nucleic Acids Research 27, 297–300.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | PubMed | open url image1

Hiratsu K, Mitsuda N, Matsui K, Ohme-Takagi M (2004) Identification of the minimal repression domain of SUPERMAN shows that the DLELRL hexapeptide is both necessary and sufficient for repression of necessary and sufficient for repression of transcription in Arabidopsis. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications 321, 172–178.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | PubMed | open url image1

Hobo T, Asada M, Kowyama Y, Hattori T (1999) ACGT-containing abscisic acid response element (ABRE) and coupling element 3 (CE3) are functionally equivalent. The Plant Journal 19, 679–689.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | PubMed | open url image1

Huang B, Liu JY (2006a) A cotton dehydration responsive element binding protein functions as a transcriptional repressor of DRE element-mediated gene expression. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications 343, 1023–1031.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | PubMed | open url image1

Huang B, Liu JY (2006b) Cloning and functional analysis of the novel gene GhDBP3 encoding a DRE-binding transcription factor from Gossypium hirsutum. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta 1759, 263–269.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | PubMed | open url image1

Huang B, Jin LG, Liu JY (2008) Identification and characterization of the novel gene GhDBP2 encoding a DRE-binding protein from cotton (Gossypium hirsutum). Journal of Plant Physiology 165, 214–223.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | PubMed | open url image1

Kazan K (2006) Negative regulation of defence and stress genes by EAR-motif-containing repressors. Trends in Plant Science 11, 109–112.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | PubMed | open url image1

Kurkela S, Franck M (1990) Cloning and characterization of a cold- and ABA-inducible Arabidopsis gene. Plant Molecular Biology 15, 137–144.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | PubMed | open url image1

Lee H, Guo Y, Ohta M, Xiong L, Stevenson B, Zhu JK (2002) LOS2, a genetic locus required for cold-responsive gene transcription encodes a bi-functional enolase. EMBO Journal 21, 2692–2702.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | PubMed | open url image1

Liu Q, Kasuga M, Sakuma Y, Abe H, Miura S, Yamaguchi-Shinozaki K, Shinozaki K (1998) Two transcription factors, DREB1 and DREB2, with an EREBP/AP2 DNA binding domain separate two cellular signal transduction pathways in drought- and low-temperature-responsive gene expression, respectively, in Arabidopsis. The Plant Cell 10, 1391–1406.
|  CAS | Crossref | PubMed |
open url image1

Liu N, Zhong NQ, Wang GL, Li LJ, Liu XL, He YK, Xia GX (2007) Cloning and functional characterization of PpDBF1 gene encoding a DRE-binding transcription factor from Physcomitrella patens. Planta 226, 827–838.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | PubMed | open url image1

Lü SY, Gu HY, Yuan XJ, Wang XM, Wu AM, Qu LJ, Liu JY (2007) The GUS reporter-aided analysis of the promoter activities of a rice metallothionein gene reveals different regulatory regions responsible for tissue-specific and inducible expression in transgenic Arabidopsis. Transgenic Research 16, 177–191.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | PubMed | open url image1

McGrath KC, Dombrecht B, Manners JM, Schenk PM, Edgar CI, Maclean DJ, Scheible WR, Udvardi MK, Kazan K (2005) Repressor- and activator-type ethylene response factors functioning in jasmonate signaling and disease resistance identified via a genome-wide screen of Arabidopsis transcription factor gene expression. Plant Physiology 139, 949–959.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | PubMed | open url image1

Medina J, Bargues M, Terol J, Perez-Alonso M, Salinas J (1999) The Arabidopsis CBF gene family is composed of three genes encoding AP2 domain-containing proteins whose expression is regulated by low temperature but not by abscisic acid or dehydration. Plant Physiology 119, 463–470.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | PubMed | open url image1

Mitsuhara I, Ugaki M, Hirochika H, Ohshima M, Murakami T , et al. (1996) Efficient promoter cassettes for enhanced expression of foreign genes in dicotyledonous and monocotyledonous plants. Plant & Cell Physiology 37, 49–59.
|  CAS | PubMed |
open url image1

Mittler R, Kim YS, Song L, Coutu J, Coutu A, Ciftci-Yilmaz S, Lee H, Stevenson B, Zhu JK (2006) Gain- and loss-of-function mutations in Zat10 enhance the tolerance of plants to abiotic stress. FEBS Letters 580, 6537–6542.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | PubMed | open url image1

Nakashima K, Fujita Y, Katsura K, Maruyama K, Narusaka Y, Seki M, Shinozaki K, Yamaguchi-Shinozaki K (2006) Transcriptional regulation of ABI3- and ABA-responsive genes including RD29B and RD29A in seeds, germinating embryos, and seedlings of Arabidopsis. Plant Molecular Biology 60, 51–68.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | PubMed | open url image1

Nishiuchi T, Shinshi H, Suzuki K (2004) Rapid and transient activation of transcription of the ERF3 gene by wounding in tobacco leaves: possible involvement of NtWRKYs and autorepression. Journal of Biological Chemistry 279, 55355–55361.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | PubMed | open url image1

Ohta M, Matsui K, Hiratsu K, Shinshi H, Ohme-Takagi M (2001) Repression domains of class II ERF transcriptional repressors share an essential motif for active repression. The Plant Cell 13, 1959–1968.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | PubMed | open url image1

Oono Y, Seki M, Nanjo T, Narusaka M, Fujita M, Satoh R, Satou M, Sakurai T, Ishida J, Akiyama K (2003) Monitoring expression profiles of Arabidopsis gene expression during rehydration process after dehydration using ca 7000 full-length cDNA microarray. The Plant Journal 34, 868–887.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | PubMed | open url image1

Sakamoto H, Maruyama K, Sakuma Y, Meshi T, Iwabuchi M, Shinozaki K, Yamaguchi-Shinozaki K (2004) Arabidopsis Cys2/His2-type zinc-finger proteins function as transcription repressors under drought, cold, and high-salinity stress conditions. Plant Physiology 136, 2734–2746.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | PubMed | open url image1

Sakuma Y, Maruyama K, Qin F, Osakabe Y, Shinozaki K, Yamaguchi-Shinozaki K (2006) Dual function of an Arabidopsis transcription factor DREB2A in water-stress-responsive and heat-stress-responsive gene expression. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 103, 18822–18827.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | PubMed | open url image1

Shinwari ZK, Nakashima K, Miura S, Kasuga M, Seki M, Yamaguchi-Shinozaki K, Shinozaki K (1998) An Arabidopsis gene family encoding DRE/CRT binding proteins involved in low-temperature-responsive gene expression. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications 250, 161–170.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | PubMed | open url image1

Song CP, Galbraith DW (2006) AtSAP18, an orthologue of human SAP18, is involved in the regulation of salt stress and mediates transcriptional repression in Arabidopsis. Plant Molecular Biology 60, 241–257.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | PubMed | open url image1

Song CP, Agarwal M, Ohta M, Guo Y, Halfter U, Wang PC, Zhu JK (2005) Role of an Arabidopsis AP2/EREBP-type transcriptional repressor in abscisic acid and drought stress responses. The Plant Cell 17, 2384–2396.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | PubMed | open url image1

Thiel G, Lietz M, Hohl M (2004) How mammalian transcriptional repressors work. European Journal of Biochemistry 271, 2855–2862.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | PubMed | open url image1

Tiwari SB, Hagen G, Guilfoyle TJ (2004) Aux/IAA proteins contain a potent transcriptional repression domain. The Plant Cell 16, 533–543.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | PubMed | open url image1

Urao T, Yamaguchi-Shinozaki K, Urao S, Shinozaki K (1993) An Arabidopsis myb homolog is induced by dehydration stress and its gene product binds to the conserved MYB recognition sequence. The Plant Cell 11, 1529–1539.
| Crossref |
open url image1

Verslues PE, Agarwal M, Katiyar-Agarwal S, Zhu J, Zhu JK (2006) Methods and concepts in quantifying resistance to drought, salt and freezing, abiotic stresses that affect plant water status. The Plant Journal 45, 523–539.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | PubMed | open url image1

Wu AM, Ling C, Liu JY (2006) Isolation of a cotton reversibly glycosylated polypeptide (GhRGP1) promoter and its expression activity in transgenic tobacco. Journal of Plant Physiology 163, 426–435.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | PubMed | open url image1

Yamaguchi-Shinozaki K, Shinozaki K (1994) A novel cis-acting element in an Arabidopsis gene is involved in responsiveness to drought, low temperature, or high-salt stress. The Plant Cell 6, 251–264.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | PubMed | open url image1

Yamaguchi-Shinozaki K, Shinozaki K (2006) Transcriptional regulatory networks in cellular responses and tolerance to dehydration and cold stresses. Annual Review of Plant Biology 57, 781–803.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | PubMed | open url image1

Yang Z, Tian LN, Latoszek-Green M, Brown D, Wu KQ (2005) Arabidopsis ERF4 is a transcriptional repressor capable of modulating ethylene and abscisic acid responses. Plant Molecular Biology 58, 585–596.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | PubMed | open url image1