Plants use ethylene gas as a signal to regulate myriad developmental processes and stress responses. The Arabidopsis EIN3 protein is a key transcription factor mediating ethylene-regulated gene expression and morphological responses. Here, we report that EIN3 protein levels rapidly increase in response to ethylene and this response requires several ethylene-signaling pathway components including the ethylene receptors (ETR1 and EIN4), CTR1, EIN2, EIN5, and EIN6. In the absence of ethylene, EIN3 is quickly degraded through a ubiquitin/proteasome pathway mediated by two F box proteins, EBF1 and EBF2. Plants containing mutations in either gene show enhanced ethylene response by stabilizing EIN3, whereas efb1 efb2 double mutants show constitutive ethylene phenotypes. Plants overexpressing either F box gene display ethylene insensitivity and destabilization of EIN3 protein. These results reveal that a ubiquitin/proteasome pathway negatively regulates ethylene responses by targeting EIN3 for degradation, and pinpoint EIN3 regulation as the key step in the response to ethylene.

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Jasmonate (JA) and ethylene (ET) are two major plant hormones that synergistically regulate plant development and tolerance to necrotrophic fungi. Both JA and ET induce the expression of several pathogenesis-related genes, while blocking either signaling pathway abolishes the induction of these genes by JA and ET alone or in combination. However, the molecular basis of JA/ET coaction and signaling interdependency is largely unknown. Here, we report that two Arabidopsis ET-stabilized transcription factors (EIN3 and EIL1) integrate ET and JA signaling in the regulation of gene expression, root development, and necrotrophic pathogen defense. Further studies reveal that JA enhances the transcriptional activity of EIN3/EIL1 by removal of JA-Zim domain (JAZ) proteins, which physically interact with and repress EIN3/EIL1. In addition, we find that JAZ proteins recruit an RPD3-type histone deacetylase (HDA6) as a corepressor that modulates histone acetylation, represses EIN3/EIL1-dependent transcription, and inhibits JA signaling. Our studies identify EIN3/EIL1 as a key integration node whose activation requires both JA and ET signaling, and illustrate transcriptional derepression as a common mechanism to integrate diverse signaling pathways in the regulation of plant development and defense.root hair | Botrytis cinerea P lants are sessile organisms and face different environmental changes during their lifespan. To survive various abiotic and biotic stresses, plants synthesize a number of small molecules functioning as phytohormones to elaborately regulate their growth, development, and defense. Two types of phytohormonesethylene (ET) and jasmonate (JA)-are crucial for plant development and defense against necrotrophic fungi infections (1-3). Complicated modes of interaction between ET and JA have been documented in different processes. For example, ET strongly suppresses JA-induced wounding-responsive gene expression, but JA suppresses ET-induced apical hook formation (4, 5), indicative of their antagonisms. Upon necrotrophic fungi infections, plants can quickly produce ET and JA and induce the expression of downstream defense genes (like ERF1, ORA59, and PDF1.2) that help plants tolerate or fight against the fungal pathogens (1). Plants treated with exogenous JA or ET express high levels of defense genes (6, 7), and simultaneous treatment with JA and ET results in the highest expression (8). Nevertheless, in the ET or JA insensitive mutant (ein2 or coi1, respectively), JA and ET alone or in combination fail to induce the expression of those defense genes (8, 9), indicating that the two hormone-signaling pathways are required concomitantly for the activation of plant-defense response. These results suggest that JA and ET act synergistically and mutually dependently in regulating necrotrophic pathogen responses. However, the molecular details underlying such hormone synergy and signaling interdependency are currently unknown.ET is a gaseous hormone, which is perceived by its receptors and represses a Raf-like kinase CON...

The shift in plants from vegetative growth to floral development is regulated by red-far-red light receptors (phytochromes) and blue-ultraviolet A light receptors (cryptochromes). A mutation in the Arabidopsis thaliana CRY2 gene encoding a blue-light receptor apoprotein (CRY2) is allelic to the late-flowering mutant, fha. Flowering in cry2/fha mutant plants is only incompletely responsive to photoperiod. Cryptochrome 2 (cry2) is a positive regulator of the flowering-time gene CO, the expression of which is regulated by photoperiod. Analysis of flowering in cry2 and phyB mutants in response to different wavelengths of light indicated that flowering is regulated by the antagonistic actions of phyB and cry2.

The phytohormone ethylene regulates multiple aspects of plant growth and development and responses to environmental stress. However, the exact role of ethylene in freezing stress remains unclear. Here, we report that ethylene negatively regulates plant responses to freezing stress in Arabidopsis thaliana. Freezing tolerance was decreased in ethylene overproducer1 and by the application of the ethylene precursor 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid but increased by the addition of the ethylene biosynthesis inhibitor aminoethoxyvinyl glycine or the perception antagonist Ag + . Furthermore, ethylene-insensitive mutants, including etr1-1, ein4-1, ein2-5, ein3-1, and ein3 eil1, displayed enhanced freezing tolerance. By contrast, the constitutive ethylene response mutant ctr1-1 and EIN3-overexpressing plants exhibited reduced freezing tolerance. Genetic and biochemical analyses revealed that EIN3 negatively regulates the expression of CBFs and type-A Arabidopsis response regulator5 (ARR5), ARR7, and ARR15 by binding to specific elements in their promoters. Overexpression of these ARR genes enhanced the freezing tolerance of plants. Thus, our study demonstrates that ethylene negatively regulates cold signaling at least partially through the direct transcriptional control of cold-regulated CBFs and type-A ARR genes by EIN3. Our study also provides evidence that type-A ARRs function as key nodes to integrate ethylene and cytokinin signaling in regulation of plant responses to environmental stress.