Phase separation of MYB73 regulates seed oil biosynthesis in Arabidopsis

Yuzhou Yang; Que Kong; Zhiming Ma; Peng Ken Lim; Sanjay K. Singh; Sitakanta Pattanaik; Marek Mutwil; Yansong Miao; Ling Yuan; Wei Ma

doi:10.1093/plphys/kiae674

Phase separation of MYB73 regulates seed oil biosynthesis in Arabidopsis

Yuzhou Yang, Que Kong, Zhiming Ma, Peng Ken Lim, Sanjay K. Singh, Sitakanta Pattanaik, Marek Mutwil, Yansong Miao, Ling Yuan, Wei Ma

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

MYB family transcription factors (TFs) play crucial roles in plant development, metabolism, and responses to various stresses. However, whether MYB TFs are involved in regulating fatty acid biosynthesis in seeds remains largely elusive. Here, we demonstrated that transgenic Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) plants overexpressing MYB73 exhibit altered FATTY ACID ELONGATION1 (FAE1) expression, seed oil content, and seed fatty acid composition. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays showed that FAE1 is a direct target of MYB73, and functional assays revealed that MYB73 represses FAE1 promoter activity. Transcriptomic analysis of the MYB73-overexpressing plants detected significant changes in the expression of genes involved in fatty acid biosynthesis and triacylglycerol assembly. Furthermore, MYB73 expression was responsive to abscisic acid (ABA), and ABA-responsive element binding factor 2 directly bound to the ABA-responsive element in the MYB73 promoter to activate its expression. Additionally, we determined that MYB73 exhibits the hallmarks of an intrinsically disordered protein and forms phase-separated condensates with liquid-like characteristics, which are important in regulating target gene expression. Together, our findings suggest that MYB73 condensate formation likely fine-tunes seed oil biosynthesis.

Original language	English
Article number	kiae674
Journal	Plant Physiology
Volume	197
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1093/plphys/kiae674
State	Published - Feb 2025

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2024.

Funding

This work was supported by Ministry of Education (MOE) of Singapore Tier 2 (grant nos. MOE-T2EP30220-0011 and MOE-T2EP30123-0001 to W.M.), MOE of Singapore Tier 1 (grant no. RG32/23 to W.M.), MOE of Singapore Tier 2 (grant no. MOE-T2EP30122-0021 to Y.M.), MOE of Singapore Tier 3 (MOE2019-T3-1-012 to Y.M.), Singapore National Research Foundation Investigatorship (grant no. NRF-NRFI08-2022-0012 to Y.M.), and MOE of Singapore Tier 2 (grant no. MOET2EP30122-0017 to M.M.).

Funders	Funder number
MOE of Singapore	RG32/23, MOE2019-T3-1-012, MOE-T2EP30122-0021
Ministry of Education - Singapore	MOE-T2EP30123-0001, MOE-T2EP30220-0011
Ministry of Education - Singapore
National Research Foundation Singapore	NRF-NRFI08-2022-0012, MOET2EP30122-0017
National Research Foundation Singapore

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Physiology
Genetics
Plant Science

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title = "Phase separation of MYB73 regulates seed oil biosynthesis in Arabidopsis",

abstract = "MYB family transcription factors (TFs) play crucial roles in plant development, metabolism, and responses to various stresses. However, whether MYB TFs are involved in regulating fatty acid biosynthesis in seeds remains largely elusive. Here, we demonstrated that transgenic Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) plants overexpressing MYB73 exhibit altered FATTY ACID ELONGATION1 (FAE1) expression, seed oil content, and seed fatty acid composition. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays showed that FAE1 is a direct target of MYB73, and functional assays revealed that MYB73 represses FAE1 promoter activity. Transcriptomic analysis of the MYB73-overexpressing plants detected significant changes in the expression of genes involved in fatty acid biosynthesis and triacylglycerol assembly. Furthermore, MYB73 expression was responsive to abscisic acid (ABA), and ABA-responsive element binding factor 2 directly bound to the ABA-responsive element in the MYB73 promoter to activate its expression. Additionally, we determined that MYB73 exhibits the hallmarks of an intrinsically disordered protein and forms phase-separated condensates with liquid-like characteristics, which are important in regulating target gene expression. Together, our findings suggest that MYB73 condensate formation likely fine-tunes seed oil biosynthesis.",

author = "Yuzhou Yang and Que Kong and Zhiming Ma and Lim, \{Peng Ken\} and Singh, \{Sanjay K.\} and Sitakanta Pattanaik and Marek Mutwil and Yansong Miao and Ling Yuan and Wei Ma",

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doi = "10.1093/plphys/kiae674",

language = "English",

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AU - Ma, Zhiming

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AU - Singh, Sanjay K.

AU - Pattanaik, Sitakanta

AU - Mutwil, Marek

AU - Miao, Yansong

AU - Yuan, Ling

AU - Ma, Wei

PY - 2025/2

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Phase separation of MYB73 regulates seed oil biosynthesis in Arabidopsis

Abstract

Bibliographical note

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