Transcriptomic analysis of Arabidopsis thaliana plants treated with the Ky-9 and Ky-72 histone deacetylase inhibitors

Plant Signal Behav. 2018 Mar 4;13(3):e1448333. doi: 10.1080/15592324.2018.1448333. Epub 2018 Mar 22.

Abstract

Histone acetylation plays a pivotal role in plant growth and development, and is regulated by the antagonistic relationship between histone acetyltransferase (HAT) and histone deacetylase (HDAC). We previously revealed that some HDAC inhibitors confer high-salinity stress tolerance in plants. In this study, we identified two HDAC inhibitors, namely Ky-9 and Ky-72, which enhanced the high-salinity stress tolerance of Arabidopsis thaliana. Ky-9 and Ky-72 are structurally similar chlamydocin analogs. However, the in vitro inhibitory activity of Ky-9 against mammalian HDAC is greater than that of Ky-72. A western blot indicated that Ky-9 and Ky-72 increased the acetylation levels of histone H3, suggesting they exhibit HDAC inhibitory activities in plants. We conducted a transcriptomic analysis to investigate how Ky-9 and Ky-72 enhance high-salinity stress tolerance. Although Ky-9 upregulated the expression of more genes than Ky-72, similar gene expression patterns were induced by both HDAC inhibitors. Additionally, the expression of high-salinity stress tolerance-related genes, such as anthocyanin-related genes and a small peptide-encoding gene, increased by Ky-9 and Ky-72. These data suggest that slight structural differences in chemical side chain between HDAC inhibitors can alter inhibitory effect on HDAC protein leading to influence gene expression, thereby enhancing high-salinity stress tolerance in different extent.

Keywords: Epigenetics; high-salinity stress; histone acetylation; histone deacetylase inhibitor; transcriptome.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Arabidopsis / drug effects*
  • Arabidopsis / genetics*
  • Gene Expression Profiling*
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Plant / drug effects
  • Genes, Plant
  • Histone Deacetylase Inhibitors / chemistry
  • Histone Deacetylase Inhibitors / pharmacology*
  • Peptides, Cyclic / chemistry
  • Peptides, Cyclic / pharmacology*
  • Salt Tolerance / drug effects
  • Salt Tolerance / genetics
  • Up-Regulation / drug effects
  • Up-Regulation / genetics

Substances

  • Histone Deacetylase Inhibitors
  • Peptides, Cyclic

Grants and funding

This project was financially supported by grants from RIKEN, the Japan Science and Technology Agency, the Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology project (Grant Number JPMJCR13B4 to MS), the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan (KAKENHI Grant Number 16H01476 to MS), and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (KAKENHI Grant Number 16K18838 to KS).