Previous research has demonstrated that AtPHR1 plays a central role in phosphate (Pi)-starvation signaling in Arabidopsis thaliana. In this work, two OsPHR genes from rice (Oryza sativa) were isolated and designated as OsPHR1 and OsPHR2 based on amino acid sequence homology to AtPHR1. Their functions in Pi signaling in rice were investigated using transgenic plants. Our results showed that both OsPHR1 and OsPHR2 are involved in Pi-starvation signaling pathway by regulation of the expression of Pi-starvation-induced genes, whereas only OsPHR2 overexpression results in the excessive accumulation of Pi in shoots under Pi-sufficient conditions. Under Pi-sufficient conditions, overexpression of OsPHR2 mimics Pi-starvation stress in rice with enhanced root elongation and proliferated root hair growth, suggesting the involvement of OsPHR2 in Pi-dependent root architecture alteration by both systematic and local pathways. In OsPHR2-overexpression plants, some Pi transporters were upregulated under Pi-sufficient conditions, which correlates with the strongly increased content of Pi. The mechanism behind the OsPHR2 regulated Pi accumulation will provide useful approaches to develop smart plants with high Pi efficiency.

Plant autophagy plays an important role in delaying senescence, nutrient recycling, and stress responses. Functional analysis of plant autophagy has almost exclusively focused on the proteins required for the core process of autophagosome assembly, but little is known about the proteins involved in other important processes of autophagy, including autophagy cargo recognition and sequestration. In this study, we report functional genetic analysis of Arabidopsis NBR1, a homolog of mammalian autophagy cargo adaptors P62 and NBR1. We isolated two nbr1 knockout mutants and discovered that they displayed some but not all of the phenotypes of autophagy-deficient atg5 and atg7 mutants. Like ATG5 and ATG7, NBR1 is important for plant tolerance to heat, oxidative, salt, and drought stresses. The role of NBR1 in plant tolerance to these abiotic stresses is dependent on its interaction with ATG8. Unlike ATG5 and ATG7, however, NBR1 is dispensable in age- and darkness-induced senescence and in resistance to a necrotrophic pathogen. A selective role of NBR1 in plant responses to specific abiotic stresses suggest that plant autophagy in diverse biological processes operates through multiple cargo recognition and delivery systems. The compromised heat tolerance of atg5, atg7, and nbr1 mutants was associated with increased accumulation of insoluble, detergent-resistant proteins that were highly ubiquitinated under heat stress. NBR1, which contains an ubiquitin-binding domain, also accumulated to high levels with an increasing enrichment in the insoluble protein fraction in the autophagy-deficient mutants under heat stress. These results suggest that NBR1-mediated autophagy targets ubiquitinated protein aggregates most likely derived from denatured or otherwise damaged nonnative proteins generated under stress conditions.

WRKY transcription factors are encoded by a large gene superfamily with a broad range of roles in plants. Recently, several groups have reported that proteins containing a short VQ (FxxxVQxLTG) motif interact with WRKY proteins. We have recently discovered that two VQ proteins from Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), SIGMA FACTOR-INTERACTING PROTEIN1 and SIGMA FACTOR-INTERACTING PROTEIN2, act as coactivators of WRKY33 in plant defense by specifically recognizing the C-terminal WRKY domain and stimulating the DNA-binding activity of WRKY33. In this study, we have analyzed the entire family of 34 structurally divergent VQ proteins from Arabidopsis. Yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) two-hybrid assays showed that Arabidopsis VQ proteins interacted specifically with the C-terminal WRKY domains of group I and the sole WRKY domains of group IIc WRKY proteins. Using site-directed mutagenesis, we identified structural features of these two closely related groups of WRKY domains that are critical for interaction with VQ proteins. Quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction revealed that expression of a majority of Arabidopsis VQ genes was responsive to pathogen infection and salicylic acid treatment. Functional analysis using both knockout mutants and overexpression lines revealed strong phenotypes in growth, development, and susceptibility to pathogen infection. Altered phenotypes were substantially enhanced through cooverexpression of genes encoding interacting VQ and WRKY proteins. These findings indicate that VQ proteins play an important role in plant growth, development, and response to environmental conditions, most likely by acting as cofactors of group I and IIc WRKY transcription factors.WRKY proteins are a relatively recently identified class of sequence-specific DNA-binding transcription factors found almost exclusively in plants (Rushton et al., 2010). The characteristic structural feature of WRKY proteins is the highly conserved WRKY domain, which contains the almost invariant WRKYGQK sequence at the N terminus followed by a Cx 4-5 Cx 22-23 HxH or Cx 7 Cx 23 HxC zinc-finger motif (Rushton et al., 2010). Genes encoding WRKY proteins have been identified in low photosynthetic and nonphotosynthetic eukaryotes, but they have greatly proliferated and form large superfamilies only in higher plants with more than 70 members in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana; Zhang and Wang, 2005). Based on the number and structures of the conserved WRKY zinc-finger motifs, WRKY proteins were initially classified into three groups (Eulgem et al., 2000). The first group contains two Cx 4 Cx 22-23 HxH zinc-finger motifs, the second group contains one Cx 4-5 Cx 23 HxH zinc-finger motif, and the third group contains one Cx 7 Cx 23 HxC zinc-finger motif. More recent analyses, however, have shown that group II WRKY proteins can be further divided into IIa, IIb, IIc, IId, and IIe subgroups (Zhang and Wang, 2005;Rushton et al., 2010). In the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii as well as in the nonphotosynthetic slime mo...

As a consequence of a sessile lifestyle, plants are continuously exposed to changing environmental conditions and often life-threatening stresses caused by exposure to excessive light, extremes of temperature, limiting nutrient or water availability, and pathogen/insect attack. The flexible coordination of plant growth and development is necessary to optimize vigour and fitness in a changing environment through rapid and appropriate responses to such stresses. The concept that reactive oxygen species (ROS) are versatile signalling molecules in plants that contribute to stress acclimation is well established. This review provides an overview of our current knowledge of how ROS production and signalling are integrated with the action of auxin, brassinosteroids, gibberellins, abscisic acid, ethylene, strigolactones, salicylic acid, and jasmonic acid in the coordinate regulation of plant growth and stress tolerance. We consider the local and systemic crosstalk between ROS and hormonal signalling pathways and identify multiple points of reciprocal control, as well as providing insights into the integration nodes that involve Ca(2+)-dependent processes and mitogen-activated protein kinase phosphorylation cascades.