Analysis of the cell death-inducing ability of the ethylene response factors in group VIII of the AP2/ERF family

作者：Ogata Takuya; Kida Yuma; Tochigi Mayuko; Matsushita Yasuhiko^*

来源：Plant Science, 2013, 209: 12-23.

DOI：10.1016/j.plantsci.2013.04.003

• ERF-associated amphiphilic repression
• (EAR) motif
• Ethylene response factor (ERF)
• Hypersensitive reaction (HR)
• Tobacco
• Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV)

The ethylene response factor (ERF) family is one of the largest families of plant-specific transcription factors. We have shown previously that the overexpression of the gene for NtERF3, a tobacco transcriptional repressor containing the ERF-associated amphiphilic repression (EAR) motif in the C-terminal region, induces hypersensitive reaction (HR)-like cell death. Many EAR motif-containing ERFs, including NtERF3, are clustered in group VIII of the ERF family. In this study, we aimed at revealing the cell death-inducing ability of group VIII ERFs and the correlation between ERFs and HR. The results showed that many of the EAR motif-containing ERFs classified into subgroup VIII-a of Arabidopsis, rice, and tobacco had cell death-inducing ability in tobacco leaves. Seven AtERFs in subgroup VIII-b did not induce cell death; however, some ERFs in subgroup VIII-b of rice and tobacco showed cell death-inducing ability. An expression analysis of group VIII ERFs in HR-inducing tobacco suggested that the cell death-inducing ability of NtERFs was not necessarily associated with induction of HR. In addition, it was revealed that the EAR motif-containing AtERFs in subgroup II-a also showed cell death-inducing ability. The influence of sequence variation in the EAR motif on the ability to induce cell death is also discussed.

• 出版日期2013-8