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DBB1a, involved in gibberellin homeostasis, functions as a negative regulator of blue light-mediated hypocotyl elongation in Arabidopsis

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Abstract

Double B-box 1a (DBB1a) belongs to the zinc-finger family proteins in Arabidopsis thaliana. Transcriptional analysis uncovered that the DBB1a gene expression was blue light-dependently regulated, and the transcript level of DBB1a in cry1cry2 was decreased but not in phyAphyB compared to wild type under blue light conditions. Transgenic plants containing pDBB1a:GUS (β-glucuronidase) displayed GUS activity in the vascular system of leaves and petioles. Green fluorescent protein (GFP)-fused DDB1a (DBB1a-GFP) protein was found in the nucleus in transient transformation assays with onion epidermal cells as well as in stable transgenic Arabidopsis plants. To investigate the function of DBB1a, we generated DBB1a over-expressing and under-expressing transgenic Arabidopsis plants. Analysis of hypocotyl growth of these lines indicated that DBB1a promoted hypocotyl elongation under blue light condition. The phenotype of transgenic plants with DBB1a over-expression could be impaired by a gibberellin (GA)-biosynthesis inhibitor. Moreover, the expression analysis of GA metabolic and catabolic genes in DBB1a transgenic lines indicated that the DBB1a suppressed GA2-oxidase1 (GA2ox1) and GA2-oxidase8 (GA2ox8) expression, but induced GA3β-hydroxygenase1 (GA3ox1) and GA20-oxidase1 (GA20ox1) expression under blue light. Taken together, we concluded that DBB1a promotes hypocotyl elongation under blue light condition through an increase in bioactive GA levels in Arabidopsis.

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Abbreviations

COP1:

Constitutive photomorphogenic 1

DBB1a:

Double B-box 1a

GA(s):

Gibberellin(s)

GA3 :

Gibberellic acid

GA2ox:

GA2-oxidase1

GA3ox:

GA3β-hydroxygenase

GA20ox:

GA20-oxidase

HY5:

Long hypocotyl 5

WT:

Wild type

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Acknowledgments

We thank C. Lin for providing cry1cry2, phyAphyB and sgs mutant seeds. Our thanks are also due to Drs.Bekir Ulker and Jane Parker for kindly providing pJawohl8-RNAi and CaMV35S::pENSG-GFP-GW vectors, and Dr Ying Ruan and Wenhui Shen for their critical reading of the manuscript. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (30770200), the Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education (755228001) and the 211/985 Higher Education Enhancement Funds to Hunan University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Biology, State Key Laboratory of Chemo/Biosensing and Chemometrics, Hunan University, Changsha, 410082, China

    Qiming Wang, Jianxin Zeng, Keqin Deng, Xiaoju Tu, Xiaoying Zhao, Dongying Tang & Xuanming Liu

  2. College of Biosciences and Biotechnology, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, 410128, China

    Qiming Wang

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  1. Qiming Wang
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Correspondence to Xuanming Liu.

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Qiming Wang and Jianxin Zeng contributed equally to this work.

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Wang, Q., Zeng, J., Deng, K. et al. DBB1a, involved in gibberellin homeostasis, functions as a negative regulator of blue light-mediated hypocotyl elongation in Arabidopsis . Planta 233, 13–23 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00425-010-1274-y

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