In vascular plants, the importance of R2R3-myeloblastosis (R2R3-MYB) transcription factors (TFs) in the formation of secondary cell walls (SCWs) has long been a controversial topic due to the lack of empirical evidence of an association between TFs and downstream target genes. Here, we found that the transcription factor PmMYB7, which belongs to the R2R3-MYB subfamily, is involved in lignin biosynthesis in Pinus massoniana. PmMYB7 was highly expressed in lignified tissues and upon abiotic stress. As a bait carrier, the PmMYB7 protein had no toxicity or autoactivation in the nucleus. Forty-seven proteins were screened from the P. massoniana yeast library. These proteins were predicted to be mainly involved in resistance, abiotic stress, cell wall biosynthesis, and cell development. We found that the PmMYB7 protein interacted with caffeoyl CoA 3-O-methyltransferase-2 (PmCCoAOMT2)-which is involved in lignin biosynthesis-but not with beta-1, 2-xylosyltransferase (PmXYXT1) yeast two-hybrid (Y2H) studies. Our in vivo coimmunoprecipitation (Co-IP) assay further showed that the PmMYB7 and PmCCoAOMT2 proteins could interact. Therefore, we concluded that PmMYB7 is an upstream TF that can interact with PmCCoAOMT2 in plant cells. These findings lay a foundation for further research on the function of PmMYB7, lignin biosynthesis and molecular breeding in P. massoniana.
Keywords: CCoAOMT2; MYB7; Pinus massoniana; lignin; protein–protein interaction; secondary cell wall; transcriptional regulation.