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Comparative survey of plastid and mitochondrial targeting properties of transcription factors in Arabidopsis and rice

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Abstract

A group of nuclear transcription factors, the Whirly proteins, were recently shown to be targeted also to chloroplasts and mitochondria. In order to find out whether other proteins might share this feature, an in silico-based screening of transcription factors from Arabidopsis and rice was carried out with the aim of identifying putative N-terminal chloroplast and mitochondrial targeting sequences. For this, the individual predictions of several independent programs were combined to a consensus prediction using a naïve Bayes method. This consensus prediction shows a higher specificity at a given sensitivity value than each of the single programs. In both species, transcription factors from a variety of protein families that possess putative N-terminal plastid or mitochondrial target peptides as well as nuclear localization sequences, were found. A search for homologues within members of the AP2/EREBP protein family revealed that target peptide-containing proteins are conserved among monocotyledonous and dicotyledonous species. Fusion of one of these proteins to GFP revealed, indeed, a dual targeting activity of this protein. We propose that dually targeted transcription factors might be involved in the communication between the nucleus and the organelles in plant cells. We further discuss how recent results on the physical interaction between the organelles and the nucleus could have significance for the regulation of the localization of these proteins.

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Abbreviations

At:

Arabidopsis thaliana

cTP:

Chloroplast targeting peptide

GFP:

Green fluorescent protein

mTP:

Mitochondrial targeting peptide

NLS:

Nuclear localization sequence

Os:

Oryza sativa

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Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge Dr. Mario Brosch and Isabell Kilbienski (University of Kiel) for stimulating discussions. Prof. Martin Huelskamp (University of Cologne) is thanked for providing the Arabidopsis cell culture.

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  1. Karsten Fischer

    Present address: Institute for Biology, University of Tromsø, 9037, Tromsø, Norway

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Botany, University of Cologne, Gyrhofstr. 15, 50931, Cologne, Germany

    Rainer Schwacke & Karsten Fischer

  2. Institute of Botany, Christian-Albrechts-University Kiel, Olshausenstr. 40, 24098, Kiel, Germany

    Bernd Ketelsen, Karin Krupinska & Kirsten Krause

  3. Institute for Biology, University of Tromsø, 9037, Tromsø, Norway

    Kirsten Krause

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  1. Rainer Schwacke
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Correspondence to Kirsten Krause.

Additional information

Communicated by B. F. Lang.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary meterial

438_2007_214_MOESM1_ESM.xls

S1: List of plastid proteins used as test set for chloroplast localization. The gene identifier, organism and function of each protein are given. (64 KB)

438_2007_214_MOESM2_ESM.xls

S2: List of mitochondrial proteins used as test set for mitochondrial localization. The gene identifier, organism and function of each protein are given. (35 KB)

438_2007_214_MOESM3_ESM.xls

S3: List of non-plastid and non-mitochondrial proteins used as control test set for non-organellar localization. The gene identifier, organism and function of each protein are given. (93 KB)

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Schwacke, R., Fischer, K., Ketelsen, B. et al. Comparative survey of plastid and mitochondrial targeting properties of transcription factors in Arabidopsis and rice. Mol Genet Genomics 277, 631–646 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00438-007-0214-4

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