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AP2/EREBP transcription factors are part of gene regulatory networks and integrate metabolic, hormonal and environmental signals in stress acclimation and retrograde signalling

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Abstract

To optimize acclimation responses to environmental growth conditions, plants integrate and weigh a diversity of input signals. Signal integration within the signalling networks occurs at different sites including the level of transcription factor activation. Accumulating evidence assigns a major and diversified role in environmental signal integration to the family of APETALA 2/ethylene response element binding protein (AP2/EREBP) transcription factors. Presently, the Plant Transcription Factor Database 3.0 assigns 147 gene loci to this family in Arabidopsis thaliana, 200 in Populus trichocarpa and 163 in Oryza sativa subsp. japonica as compared to 13 to 14 in unicellular algae (http://plntfdb.bio.uni-potsdam.de/v3.0/). AP2/EREBP transcription factors have been implicated in hormone, sugar and redox signalling in context of abiotic stresses such as cold and drought. This review exemplarily addresses present-day knowledge of selected AP2/EREBP with focus on a function in stress signal integration and retrograde signalling and defines AP2/EREBP-linked gene networks from transcriptional profiling-based graphical Gaussian models. The latter approach suggests highly interlinked functions of AP2/EREBPs in retrograde and stress signalling.

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Abbreviations

ABA:

abscisic acid

AP2:

APETALA 2

DCMU:

3-(3,4-dichlorophenyl)-1,1-dimethylurea

CBF:

C-repeat binding factor

DREB:

dehydration-responsive element binding protein

EREBP:

ethylene response element binding protein

ERF:

ethylene responsive factor

GGM:

graphical Gaussian model

PSY:

phytoene synthase

RAP2:

related to AP2

RAV:

related to ABI3/VP1

TF:

transcription factor

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Acknowledgements

The own cited work and analysis was performed within the Special Research Focus FOR804 of the DFG.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biochemistry and Physiology of Plants–W5, Bielefeld University, 33501, Bielefeld, Germany

    Karl-Josef Dietz, Marc Oliver Vogel & Andrea Viehhauser

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  1. Karl-Josef Dietz
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Correspondence to Karl-Josef Dietz.

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This article is published as part of the Special Issue on Stress metabolism of plant

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Supplementary Table 1

List of all AP2/EREBP transcription factors from A. thaliana. The table compiles gene identification number, classification, size and assigned names according to TAIR and UniProt (Jain et al. 2009, Swarbreck et al. 2008, The Uniprot Consortium 2009) (DOC 397 kb)

Supplementary Table 2

List of genes assigned to graphical Gaussian models (GGM). Table lists names and annotations for genes co-expressed with specified “seed genes”, namely At1g19210, At1g21910, At1g22190, At1g33760, At1g36060, At1g43160, At1g79700, ABI4, At3g14230, At3g50260, At4g34410, At4g39780, At5g18560, At5g47220, At5g51190 and At5g52020. (DOC 455 kb)

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Dietz, KJ., Vogel, M.O. & Viehhauser, A. AP2/EREBP transcription factors are part of gene regulatory networks and integrate metabolic, hormonal and environmental signals in stress acclimation and retrograde signalling. Protoplasma 245, 3–14 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00709-010-0142-8

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