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Functional characterization of an aluminum (Al)‐inducible transcription factor, ART 2, revealed a different pathway for Al tolerance in rice
Author(s) -
Che Jing,
Tsutsui Tomokazu,
Yokosho Kengo,
Yamaji Naoki,
Ma Jian Feng
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
new phytologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.742
H-Index - 244
eISSN - 1469-8137
pISSN - 0028-646X
DOI - 10.1111/nph.15252
Subject(s) - transcription factor , gene , mutant , oryza sativa , biology , zinc finger , zinc finger transcription factor , phenotype , gene expression , transcription (linguistics) , microbiology and biotechnology , genetics , linguistics , philosophy
Summary High aluminum (Al) tolerance in rice ( Oryza sativa ) is controlled by a Cys2His2‐type zinc finger transcription factor ART 1 (Al resistance transcription factor 1). There are five close homologs of ART 1 in the rice genome, but the role of these homologs is unknown. We functionally characterized one of the ART 1 homologs, ART 2, in terms of tissue and spatial expression, subcellular localization, transcriptional activation activity, and phenotypic analysis of the knockout lines. ART 2 was localized to the nucleus and showed a transcriptional activation potential in yeast. ART 2 was mainly expressed in the roots, but the expression level was much lower than that of ART 1 . The ART 2 expression was rapidly induced by Al in the roots of the wild‐type rice, but not in art1 mutant. Knockout of ART 2 resulted in increased sensitivity to Al toxicity, but did not alter sensitivity to different pH values. Expression profile analysis by RNA ‐sequencing showed that ART 2 was not involved in activation of genes regulated by ART 1; however, four genes seems to be regulated by ART 2, which are implicated in Al tolerance. These results indicate that ART 1 and ART 2 regulate different pathways leading to Al tolerance, and ATR 2 plays a supplementary role in Al tolerance in rice.