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PMID: 20487379 Published · ppublish English Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

ABO3, a WRKY transcription factor, mediates plant responses to abscisic acid and drought tolerance in Arabidopsis.

The Plant journal : for cell and molecular biology ·Vol. 63 ·No. 3 ·2010-08-00 ·Pages 417-29

Ren X, Chen Z, Liu Y, Zhang H, Zhang M, Liu Q, Hong X, Zhu JK, Gong Z

Abstract

The biological functions of WRKY transcription factors in plants have been widely studied, but their roles in abiotic stress are still not well understood. We isolated an ABA overly sensitive mutant, abo3, which is disrupted by a T-DNA insertion in At1g66600 encoding a WRKY transcription factor AtWRKY63. The mutant was hypersensitive to ABA in both seedling establishment and seedling growth. However, stomatal closure was less sensitive to ABA, and the abo3 mutant was less drought tolerant than the wild type. Northern blot analysis indicated that the expression of the ABA-responsive transcription factor ABF2/AREB1 was markedly lower in the abo3 mutant than in the wild type. The abo3 mutation also reduced the expression of stress-inducible genes RD29A and COR47, especially early during ABA treatment. ABO3 is able to bind the W-box in the promoter of ABF2in vitro. These results uncover an important role for a WRKY transcription factor in plant responses to ABA and drought stress.

Keywords
Arabidopsis WRKY transcription factor abscisic acid drought stress
MeSH Terms
Adaptation, Physiological/physiology Arabidopsis/genetics,metabolism,physiology Arabidopsis Proteins/genetics,physiology Blotting, Northern Droughts Genes, Plant Mutation Plant Stomata/physiology Stress, Physiological
Chemicals
Arabidopsis Proteins
Authors & Affiliations
9 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Ren Xiaozhi
State Key Laboratory of Plant Physiology and Biochemistry, College of Biological Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, ChinaDepartment of Botany and Plant Sciences, Institute for Integrative Genome Biology, 2150 Batchelor Hall, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521, USAChina Agricultural University, University of California-Riverside Center for Biological Sciences and Biotechnology, Beijing 100193, ChinaNational Center for Plant Gene Research, Beijing 100193, China.
Chen Zhizhong
Liu Yue
Zhang Hairong
Zhang Min
Liu Qian
Hong Xuhui
Zhu Jian-Kang
Gong Zhizhong
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Article Info
Journal
The Plant journal : for cell and molecular biology
Abbr.
Plant J
ISSN
1365-313X
Published
2010-08-00
Epub
2010-00-06
Pages
417-29
Language
English
Region
England
NLM ID
9207397
PMCID
PMC3117930
Subset
IM
Grants
NIGMS NIH HHS · R01 GM059138 · United States
NIGMS NIH HHS · R01 GM059138-15 · United States
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