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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Ithaca, New York » Robert W. Holley Center for Agriculture & Health » Plant, Soil and Nutrition Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #309827
Title: Genome-wide data (ChIP-seq) enabled identification of cell wall-related and aquaporin genes as targets of tomato ASR1, a drought stress-responsive transcription factor

Author
item RICARDI, MARTINIANO - Universidad De Buenos Aires
item GONZALEZ, RODRIGO - Universidad De Buenos Aires
item ZHONG, SILIN - Boyce Thompson Institute
item DUFFY, THOMAS - Universidad De Buenos Aires
item TURJANSKI, PABLO - Universidad De Buenos Aires
item ALLEVA, KARINA - Universidad De Buenos Aires
item CARRARI, FERNANDO - University Of Buenos Aires
item Giovannoni, James
item ESTEVEZ, JOSE - Universidad De Buenos Aires
item IUSEM, NORBERTO - Universidad De Buenos Aires

Submitted to: BMC Plant Biology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/10/2014
Publication Date: 1/14/2014
Publication URL: http://DOI: 10.1186/1471-2229-14-29
Citation: Ricardi, M., Gonzalez, R., Zhong, S., Duffy, T., Turjanski, P., Alleva, K., Carrari, F., Giovannoni, J.J., Estevez, J., Iusem, N. 2014. Genome-wide data (ChIP-seq) enabled identification of cell wall-related and aquaporin genes as targets of tomato ASR1, a drought stress-responsive transcription factor. Biomed Central (BMC) Plant Biology. 14:29.

Interpretive Summary: Plants require molecular regulatory systems that trigger responses to challenging environmental situations so that they can cope with, for example, drought and pathogen attack. Identifying mechanisms of molecular regulation for corresponding stress-response genes is important to unravel responses to stress in all kinds of organisms. Here we identified and investigated specific gene regions that physically interact with a particular regulatory gene (transcription factor) participating in the response to water deficit, a type of stress which plants have coped with since they colonized land habitats 400 MYA. Specifically, searching the genome of tomato we found numerous genes that interact with this the ASR1 stress-related transcription factor, highlighting a set of genes likely to be important in drought stress response. This is a first step in identifying the initial set of genetic “first responders” to an environmental challenge.

Technical Abstract: Here we report efforts to take advantage of previous knowledge on well characterized proteins that extensively accumulate in dehydration, for example those belonging to the LEA (late embryogenesis abundant) superfamily. ASR proteins, a subgroup exclusive to the plant kingdom (albeit absent in Arabidopsis), are known to alleviate the stress caused by restricted water availability and, at least in the case of the Solanum genus, have been a target of positive selection in the evolution of tolerance to dry environments. ASR1, one member of this family, is a transcription factor whose multiple target genes are still unknown despite its original cloning twenty years ago. With the aim of discovering those elusive genes, we performed ChIP followed by high throughput DNA sequencing (ChIP-seq) on leaves from stressed tomato plants, using a high-quality anti-ASR1 antibody under current guidelines based on rigorous working standards. Many of the ASR1-enriched genomic loci turned out to encode enzymes involved in cell wall synthesis and remodelling and also channels implicated in water and solute flux like aquaporins, consistently with their suggested role in adaptation of plants to water loss. Finally, we were able to find a robust consensus ASR1-binding DNA motif.