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Hahb-4, a sunflower homeobox-leucine zipper gene, is a developmental regulator and confers drought tolerance to Arabidopsis thaliana plants

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Abstract

Homeodomain-leucine zipper proteins constitute a family of transcription factors found only in plants. Hahb-4 is a member of Helianthus annuus (sunflower) subfamily I. It is regulated at the transcriptional level by water availability and abscisic acid. In order to establish if this gene plays a functional role in drought responses, transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana plants that overexpress Hahb-4 under the control of the 35S Cauliflower Mosaic Virus promoter were obtained. Transformed plants show a specific phenotype: they develop shorter stems and internodes, rounder leaves and more compact inflorescences than their non-transformed counterparts. Shorter stems and internodes are due to a lower rate in cell elongation rather than to a cell division. Transgenic plants were more tolerant to water stress conditions, showing improved development, a healthier appearance and higher survival rates than wild-type plants. Indeed, either under normal or drought conditions, they produce approximately the same seed weight per plant as wild-type plants under normal growth conditions. Plants transformed with a construct that bears the Hahb-4 promoter fused to gusA show reporter gene expression in defined cell-types and developmental stages and are induced by drought and abscisic acid. Since Hahb-4 is a transcription factor, we propose that it may participate in the regulation of the expression of genes involved in developmental responses of plants to desiccation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Facultad de Bioquímica y Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Nacional del Litoral, CC 242 Paraje El Pozo, 3000, Santa Fe, Argentina

    Carlos Alberto Dezar, Gabriela Marisa Gago, Daniel Héctor González & Raquel Lía Chan

  2. Area de Microbiología, IBR, Suipacha 531, 2000, Rosario, Argentina

    Gabriela Marisa Gago

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  1. Carlos Alberto Dezar
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  2. Gabriela Marisa Gago
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  3. Daniel Héctor González
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  4. Raquel Lía Chan
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Correspondence to Raquel Lía Chan.

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Dezar, C.A., Gago, G.M., González, D.H. et al. Hahb-4, a sunflower homeobox-leucine zipper gene, is a developmental regulator and confers drought tolerance to Arabidopsis thaliana plants. Transgenic Res 14, 429–440 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11248-005-5076-0

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