Abstract
Cross-family transcription factor (TF) interactions play critical roles in the regulation of plant developmental and metabolic pathways. WRINKLED1 (WRI1) is a key TF governing oil biosynthesis in plants. However, little is known about WRI1-interacting factors and their roles in oil biosynthesis. We screened a TF library using Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) WRI1 (AtWRI1) as bait in yeast two-hybrid assays and identified three TEOSINTE BRANCHED1/CYCLOIDEA/PROLIFERATING CELL FACTOR (TCP) family TFs, namely TCP4, TCP10, and TCP24, as AtWRI1-interacting partners. The physical interaction between AtWRI1 and TCPs was further validated using bimolecular fluorescence complementation assays. TCPs play important roles in various plant developmental processes; however, their involvement in fatty acid biosynthesis was not previously known. Coexpression of TCP4, but not TCP10 or TCP24, with AtWRI1 reduced AtWRI1-mediated oil biosynthesis in Nicotiana benthamiana leaves. Transcriptomic analysis in transgenic Arabidopsis plants with enhanced TCP4 activity engineered by expressing rTCP4 (i.e. miR319-resistant TCP4) revealed that AtWRI1 target genes were significantly repressed. TCP4 expression is strongly correlated with AtWRI1 during embryo development. A tcp4 loss-of-function mutant, the jaw-D mutant with a strong reduction of TCP4 expression, and a tcp2 tcp4 tcp10 triple mutant accumulated more seed oil than wild-type Arabidopsis. In addition, TCP4 repressed the AtWRI1-mediated transactivation of the promoters of fatty acid biosynthetic genes. Collectively, our findings suggest that TCP4 represses fatty acid biosynthetic gene expression through interaction with AtWRI1, leading to a reduction of AtWRI1-mediated seed oil accumulation.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 658-665 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Plant Physiology |
Volume | 184 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Oct 2020 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2020 American Society of Plant Biologists. All rights reserved.
Funding
1This work was supported by a Department of Energy-Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center Cooperative Agreement (grant no. DE– FC02–07ER64494 to C.B.), the Harold R. Burton Endowed Professorship (to L.Y.), a Nanyang Technological University Startup Grant (to W.M.), and the Ministry of Education of Singapore Tier 1 (grant no. 2018–T1–002–019 to W.M.). 2Author for contact: [email protected]. 3Senior author.
Funders | Funder number |
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Department of Energy-Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center | DE– FC02–07ER64494 |
Ministry of Education - Singapore | 2018–T1–002–019 |
Nanyang Technological University |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Physiology
- Genetics
- Plant Science