ATAF2, a NAC transcription factor, binds to the promoter and regulates NIT2 gene expression involved in auxin biosynthesis

Sung Un Huh, Suk Bae Lee, Hwang Hyun Kim, Kyung Hee Paek

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    59 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    The transcription factor ATAF2, one of the plant specific NAC family genes, is known as repressor of pathogenesisrelated genes and responsive to the diverse defense-related hormones, pathogen infection, and wounding stress. Furthermore, it is important to consider that tryptophandependant IAA biosynthesis pathway can be activated by wounding and pathogen. We found that ATAF2pro::GUS reporter was induced upon indole-3-acetonitrile (IAN) treatments. And ataf2 mutant showed reduced sensitivity to IAN whereas 35S::ATAF2 plants showed hyper-sensitivity to IAN. IAN biosynthesis required nitrilase involved in the conversion of IAN to an auxin, indole-3-acetic acid (IAA). We found that the NIT2 gene was repressed in ataf2 knockout plants. Expression of both ATAF2 and NIT2 genes was induced by IAN treatment. Transgenic plants overexpressing ATAF2 showed up-regulated NIT2 expression. ATAF2 activated promoter of the NIT2 gene in Arabidopsis protoplasts. Electrophoretic mobility shift assay revealed that NIT2 promoter region from position -117 to -82 contains an ATAF2 binding site where an imperfect palindrome sequence was critical to the protein-DNA interaction. These findings indicate that ATAF2 regulates NIT2 gene expression via NIT2 promoter binding.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)305-313
    Number of pages9
    JournalMolecules and cells
    Volume34
    Issue number3
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2012 Sept

    Bibliographical note

    Funding Information:
    This work was supported by the Science Research Center-Engineering Research Center Program (Plant Signaling Network Research Center) of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (R11-2003-008-02001-0), the Mid-career Researcher-Program through a National Research Foundation grant funded by the Mest (2009-0085565), and the Wujang-choon Project (PJ007850) from the Rural Development Administration, Republic of Korea.

    Keywords

    • ATAF2
    • Arabidopsis
    • Auxin
    • NAC transcription factor
    • Nitrilase

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Molecular Biology
    • Cell Biology

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'ATAF2, a NAC transcription factor, binds to the promoter and regulates NIT2 gene expression involved in auxin biosynthesis'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this