The Arabidopsis thaliana Med25 mediator subunit integrates environmental cues to control plant development

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2011 May 17;108(20):8245-50. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1002981108. Epub 2011 May 2.

Abstract

Development in plants is controlled by abiotic environmental cues such as day length, light quality, temperature, drought, and salinity. These signals are sensed by a variety of systems and transmitted by different signal transduction pathways. Ultimately, these pathways are integrated to control expression of specific target genes, which encode proteins that regulate development and differentiation. The molecular mechanisms for such integration have remained elusive. We here show that a linear 130-amino-acids-long sequence in the Med25 subunit of the Arabidopsis thaliana Mediator is a common target for the drought response element binding protein 2A, zinc finger homeodomain 1, and Myb-like transcription factors which are involved in different stress response pathways. In addition, our results show that Med25 together with drought response element binding protein 2A also function in repression of PhyB-mediated light signaling and thus integrate signals from different regulatory pathways.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Arabidopsis / growth & development
  • Arabidopsis / physiology*
  • Arabidopsis Proteins / physiology*
  • Binding Sites
  • DNA-Binding Proteins
  • Environment*
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Plant / physiology*
  • Mediator Complex / physiology*
  • Nuclear Proteins / physiology*
  • Protein Subunits / physiology
  • Signal Transduction / physiology*
  • Stress, Physiological / genetics
  • Transcription Factors

Substances

  • Arabidopsis Proteins
  • DNA-Binding Proteins
  • Mediator Complex
  • Nuclear Proteins
  • PFT1 protein, Arabidopsis
  • Protein Subunits
  • Transcription Factors