Arabidopsis C3H14 and C3H15 have overlapping roles in the regulation of secondary wall thickening and anther development

Abstract

Plant tandem CCCH zinc finger (TZF) proteins play diverse roles in developmental and adaptive processes. Arabidopsis C3H14 has been shown to act as a potential regulator of secondary wall biosynthesis. However, there is lack of direct evidence to support its functions in Arabidopsis. It is demonstrated here that C3H14 and its homologue C3H15 redundantly regulate secondary wall formation and that they additionally function in anther development. Plants with double, but not single, T-DNA mutants for C3H14 or C3H15 have few pollen grains and thinner stem secondary walls than the wild type. Plants homozygous for c3h14 and heterozygous for c3h15 [c3h14 c3h15(±)] have slightly thinner secondary walls than plants heterozygous for c3h14 and homozygous for c3h15 [c3h14(±) c3h15], and c3h14(±) c3h15 have lower fertility. Overexpression of C3H14 or C3H15 led to increased secondary wall thickness in stems and the ectopic deposition of secondary walls in various tissues, but did not affect anther morphology. Transcript profiles from the C3H14/15 overexpression and c3h14 c3h15 plants revealed marked changes in the expression of many genes associated with cell wall metabolism and pollen formation. Subcellular localization and biochemical analyses suggest that C3H14/15 might function at both the transcriptional and post-transcriptional levels.

Dual regulation of xylem formation by an auxin‐mediated PaC3H17‐PaMYB199 module in Populus

“…It should be noted that the high peak in the PaC3H17 expression profile was closer to the cambium in the expansion to SCW transition zone than that in PaMYB199 expression profile (Fig. This is consistent with our previous report that AtC3H14 and AtC3H15, two orthologues of PaC3H17 in Arabidopsis, redundantly and negatively regulate cell expansion in stems (Chai et al, 2015). Phenotypic observations indicated that both PaC3H17 and PaMYB199 negatively controlled stem elongation through suppression of cell wall loosening-related genes such as PaXTH3.1 and PaXTH23 (Figs 2, S7; Chai et al, 2014a).…”

Selection for a Zinc-Finger Protein Contributes to Seed Oil Increase during Soybean Domestication

“…TZF proteins play pivotal roles in many developmental processes, such as AtTZF4/AtTZF5/AtTZF6 in seed germination (Bogamuwa and Jang, 2013), AtTZF1/AtTZF10/AtTZF11 in abiotic stress tolerance (Sun et al, 2007;Lin et al, 2011), PEI1 in embryo formation (Li and Thomas, 1998), and AtC3H14/AtC3H15 in male fertility and secondary wall thickening (Chai et al, 2015). Our study reveals that the TZF protein GmZF351 in soybean is involved in regulating lipogenesis.…”

“…TZF proteins in Arabidopsis were found to possess transcription activation activity in a yeast system (Chai et al, 2015). To examine whether GmZF351 possessed transcription activation activity, a dual-luciferase reporter assay was performed using Arabidopsis protoplasts with Renilla luciferase (LUC) as the internal control.…”

An Arabidopsis Zinc Finger Protein Increases Abiotic Stress Tolerance by Regulating Sodium and Potassium Homeostasis, Reactive Oxygen Species Scavenging and Osmotic Potential

“…These characterized ZFPs are involved in plant development (Li X.J. et al, 2014; Seok et al, 2016), regulation of plant height (Liu et al, 2011; Sendon et al, 2014), root development (Liu et al, 2013), flower development (Yang et al, 2014), seed germination (Baek et al, 2015), secondary wall thickening and anther development (Chai et al, 2015), and fruit ripening (Weng et al, 2015). ZFP family proteins are involved in resistance to biotic stresses, such as rice blast fungus infection (Li Y. et al, 2014; Cao et al, 2016).…”