Genome‐wide binding analysis of AtGNC and AtCGA1 demonstrates their cross‐regulation and common and specific functions

GATA transcription factors are involved in multiple processes in plant growth and development. Two GATA factors, NITRATE ‐ INDUCIBLE , CARBON METABOLISM ‐ INVOLVED ( GNC ) and CYTOKININ ‐ RESPONSIVE GATA FACTOR 1 ( CGA 1 , also named GNL ), are important regulators in greening, flowering, senescence, and hormone signaling. However, their direct target genes related to these biological processes are poorly characterized. Here, GNC and CGA 1 are shown to be transcription activators and by using chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing (Ch IP ‐seq), 1475 and 638 genes are identified to be associated with GNC and CGA 1 binding, respectively. Enrichment of diverse motifs in the peak binding regions for GNC and CGA 1 suggests the possibility that these two transcription factors also interact with other transcription factors and in addition genes coding for DNA ‐binding proteins are highly enriched among GNC ‐ and CGA 1‐associated genes. Despite the fact that these two GATA factors are known to share a large portion of co‐expressed genes, our analysis revealed a low percentage of overlapping binding‐associated genes for these two homologues. This suggests a possible cross‐regulation between these, which is verified using Ch IP ‐ qPCR . The common and specific biological processes regulated by GNC and CGA 1 also support this notion. Functional analysis of the binding‐associated genes revealed that those encoding transcription factors, E3 ligase, as well as genes with roles in plant development are highly enriched, indicating that GNC and CGA 1 mediate complex genetic networks in regulating different aspects of plant growth and development.