TY - JOUR

T1 - REVOLUTA and WRKY53 connect early and late leaf development in Arabidopsis

AU - Xie, Yakun

AU - Huhn, Kerstin

AU - Brandt, Ronny

AU - Potschin, Maren

AU - Bieker, Stefan

AU - Straub, Daniel

AU - Doll, Jasmin

AU - Drechsler, Thomas

AU - Zentgraf, Ulrike

AU - Wenkel, Stephan

N1 - © 2014. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd.

PY - 2014

Y1 - 2014

N2 - As sessile organisms, plants have to continuously adjust growth and development to ever-changing environmental conditions. At the end of the growing season, annual plants induce leaf senescence to reallocate nutrients and energy-rich substances from the leaves to the maturing seeds. Thus, leaf senescence is a means with which to increase reproductive success and is therefore tightly coupled to the developmental age of the plant. However, senescence can also be induced in response to sub-optimal growth conditions as an exit strategy, which is accompanied by severely reduced yield. Here, we show that class III homeodomain leucine zipper (HD-ZIPIII) transcription factors, which are known to be involved in basic pattern formation, have an additional role in controlling the onset of leaf senescence in Arabidopsis. Several potential direct downstream genes of the HD-ZIPIII protein REVOLUTA (REV) have known roles in environment-controlled physiological processes. We report that REV acts as a redox-sensitive transcription factor, and directly and positively regulates the expression of WRKY53, a master regulator of age-induced leaf senescence. HD-ZIPIII proteins are required for the full induction of WRKY53 in response to oxidative stress, and mutations in HD-ZIPIII genes strongly delay the onset of senescence. Thus, a crosstalk between early and late stages of leaf development appears to contribute to reproductive success.

AB - As sessile organisms, plants have to continuously adjust growth and development to ever-changing environmental conditions. At the end of the growing season, annual plants induce leaf senescence to reallocate nutrients and energy-rich substances from the leaves to the maturing seeds. Thus, leaf senescence is a means with which to increase reproductive success and is therefore tightly coupled to the developmental age of the plant. However, senescence can also be induced in response to sub-optimal growth conditions as an exit strategy, which is accompanied by severely reduced yield. Here, we show that class III homeodomain leucine zipper (HD-ZIPIII) transcription factors, which are known to be involved in basic pattern formation, have an additional role in controlling the onset of leaf senescence in Arabidopsis. Several potential direct downstream genes of the HD-ZIPIII protein REVOLUTA (REV) have known roles in environment-controlled physiological processes. We report that REV acts as a redox-sensitive transcription factor, and directly and positively regulates the expression of WRKY53, a master regulator of age-induced leaf senescence. HD-ZIPIII proteins are required for the full induction of WRKY53 in response to oxidative stress, and mutations in HD-ZIPIII genes strongly delay the onset of senescence. Thus, a crosstalk between early and late stages of leaf development appears to contribute to reproductive success.

KW - Alcohol Oxidoreductases

KW - Arabidopsis

KW - Arabidopsis Proteins

KW - Chromatin Immunoprecipitation

KW - Cysteine Endopeptidases

KW - DNA-Binding Proteins

KW - Gene Expression Regulation, Plant

KW - Homeodomain Proteins

KW - Hydrogen Peroxide

KW - Leucine Zippers

KW - Plant Leaves

KW - Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction

KW - Transcription Factors

U2 - 10.1242/dev.117689

DO - 10.1242/dev.117689

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 25395454

VL - 141

SP - 4772

EP - 4783

JO - Development

JF - Development

SN - 0950-1991

IS - 24

ER -