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Down-regulation of the maize and Arabidopsis thaliana caffeic acid O-methyl-transferase genes by two new maize R2R3-MYB transcription factors

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Abstract

The maize (Zea mays L.) caffeic acid O-methyl-transferase (COMT) is a key enzyme in the biosynthesis of lignin. In this work we have characterized the involvement of COMT in the lignification process through the study of the molecular mechanisms involved in its regulation. The examination of the maize COMT gene promoter revealed a putative ACIII box, typically recognized by R2R3-MYB transcription factors. We used the sequence of known R2R3-MYB factors to isolate five maize R2R3-MYB factors (ZmMYB2, ZmMYB8, ZmMYB31, ZmMYB39, and ZmMYB42) and study their possible roles as regulators of the maize COMT gene. The factors ZmMYB8, ZmMY31, and ZmMYB42 belong to the subgroup 4 of the R2R3-MYB family along with other factors associated with lignin biosynthesis repression. In addition, the induction pattern of ZmMYB31 and ZmMYB42 gene expression on wounding is that expected for repressors of the maize COMT gene. Arabidopsis thaliana plants over-expressing ZmMYB31 and ZmMYB42 down-regulate both the A. thaliana and the maize COMT genes. Furthermore, the over-expression of ZmMYB31 and ZmMYB42 also affect the expression of other genes of the lignin pathway and produces a decrease in lignin content of the transgenic plants.

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Acknowledgments

We are indebted to Dr. Sheen (MGH, USA) for kindly providing us with the synthetic GFP (sGFP) as well as the John Innes Center (Norwich, UK) for providing us with the pGREENII-0029 vector. We want to thank Dr. Piulachs (IBMB-CSIC) for her advice and comments on the phylogenetic analyses performed in this work and Dr. Pons for the confocal microscopy analyses. We are also indebted to the sequencing and greenhouse teams of IBMB-CSIC, as well as Dr. Burgess for the English correction of this manuscript. This work was funded by the Spanish “Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología” (BIO2001-1140). S-F was financed by a post-doctoral grant from the Autonomous Government of Catalonia (2003PIV-A-00033). F.M-S was financed by the European Project INCO-II (ICA4-CT-2000-30017) and by the “Consorci CSIC-IRTA” laboratory. T-M was financed by the European Project MapMaize (PL 962312). D-C.R was financed by the Spanish “Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología” (“Ramón y Cajal” Program). This work was carried out within the framework of the “Centre de Referència de Biotecnologia” (CERBA) from the Autonomous Government of Catalonia.

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  1. Tamara Maes

    Present address: Oryzon Genomics, Parc Científic de la Universitat de Barcelona, Josep Samitier 1-5, 08028, Barcelona, Spain

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departament de Genética Molecular, Laboratori de Genètica Molecular Vegetal, CSIC-IRTA, Jordi Girona 18-26, 08034, Barcelona, Spain

    Silvia Fornalé, Fathi-Mohamed Sonbol, Tamara Maes, Montserrat Capellades, Pere Puigdomènech, Joan Rigau & David Caparrós-Ruiz

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  1. Silvia Fornalé
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  2. Fathi-Mohamed Sonbol
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Correspondence to Joan Rigau.

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Fornalé, S., Sonbol, FM., Maes, T. et al. Down-regulation of the maize and Arabidopsis thaliana caffeic acid O-methyl-transferase genes by two new maize R2R3-MYB transcription factors. Plant Mol Biol 62, 809–823 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11103-006-9058-2

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