Arabidopsis VIP6/ELF8, the homolog of CTR9 component of the transcriptional complex PAF1, is essential for plant development

Abstract

Gene regulation in eukaryotes is affected by chromatin structure. Changes in chromatin structure are regulated by multiple ways of histone modifications, such as acetylation, methylation, and ubiquitination. It is believed that the trimethylated histone H3 at lysine 4 (H3K4), 36 (H3K36) and 79 (H3K79) are hallmarks of active chromatins (Shilatifard 2006). In yeast, trimethylation of H3K4 in the 5Ј region of the target gene is catalyzed by the SET1 histone methyltransferase, and the recruitment of SET1 protein requires the RNA polymerase II-associated factor 1 (PAF1) complex together with serine-5 phosphorylation of the C-terminal domain of RNA polymerase II (Hampsey and Reinberg 2003). The yeast PAF1 complex consists of five components, PAF1, LEO1, RTF1, CTR9 and CDC73 Krogan et al. 2003;Squazzo et al. 2002), and the PAF1 complex is required for efficient transcription elongation by RNA polymerase II (Marton and Desiderio 2008). Moreover, the PAF1 complex may regulate gene expression through a posttranscriptional mechanism, such as 3Ј-processing of premRNAs (Mueller et al. 2004;Penheiter et al. 2005;Sheldon et al. 2005). In human, hSki8 was identified as another component of the human PAF1 complex (Zhu et al. 2005). Human hSki8 subunit is the homolog of yeast SKI8/REC103 (Gardiner et al. 1997) that is a component of yeast superkiller (SKI) complex, which is required for 3Ј-to-5Ј degradation of cytoplasmic mRNAs (Masison et al. 1995;Anderson and Parker 1998). Human hSKI complex localizes to both nucleus and cytoplasm and interacts with human PAF1 complex, and associates with transcriptionally active genes depending on the presence of human PAF1 complex (Zhu et al. 2005). Thus, in addition to coordinating events during transcription, hPAF1 complex also coordinates events in RNA quality control.In Arabidopsis thaliana, growing evidences indicate that the major floral repressor FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC), a MADS-box transcription factor, is under the control of multiple chromatin modifiers. It show early flowering phenotype, as well as other pleiotropic developmental defects. Here, we provide evidence that seeds with vip6/elf8 homozygous mutations were rarely obtained in all three independent lines of T-DNA insertion. Although viable seeds with homozygous mutant alleles were rarely obtained, they showed pleiotropic phenotype like mutants of other PAF1-related genes, and were sterile. These results suggest that the VIP6/ELF8 gene is essential for plant development.Key words: CTR9, ELF8, embryonic lethality, PAF1 complex, VIP6.Plant Biotechnology 25, 447-455 (2008) (He et al. 2004;Oh et al. 2004;Xu et al. 2008). Consistent with this, trimethylation of H3K4 in FLC as well as in FLOWERING LOCUS M (FLM)/MAF1 chromatin was reduced in elf7 and elf8 mutants (He et al. 2004). Similarly, decreased levels of trimethyl-H3K4 in FLC and FLM/MAF1 chromatins were observed in vip4 mutants (Xu et al. 2008).Arabidopsis vip2/elf7, vip3, vip4, vip5 and vip6/elf8, show similar phenotypes of pleiotropic developmental defects that ar...

The RNA Polymerase-Associated Factor 1 Complex Is Required for Plant Touch Responses

“…3D ). While the ths1 mutant did not show a clear difference from wild type, vip3-2 , vip5-062223 and null vip6-065364 (elf8-2 ) ( He et al , 2004 ; Oh et al , 2004 ; Shiraya et al , 2008 ) mutants showed a dramatic difference in how their roots responded to growth on hard agar, with a wider range of slanting angles and no preference for slanting direction. In summary, ths1 mutants have defects in root skewing and coiling assays when propyzamide is added, and vip null mutants have defects in root skewing and coiling assays both with and without propyzamide.…”

“…The VIP3 protein has been detected both in the Paf1 complex and in the Superkiller (SKI) complex ( Dorcey et al , 2012 ). Several other proteins (VIP4, VIP5, VIP6/ELF8 and VIP2/ELF7) are known to be part of the Paf1 complex but not the SKI complex ( Zhang and van Nocker, 2002 ; Zha ng et al , 2003 ; He et al , 2004 ; Oh et al , 2004 ; Oh et al , 2008 ; Shiraya et al , 2008 ; Park et al , 2010 ). To determine if the touch insensitivity of ths1 can be attributed to the action of the Paf1 complex, we tested null vip5-062223 mutants ( Oh et al , 2004 ) in the paintbrush assay.…”

Histone H3 lysine4 trimethylation‐regulated GRF11 expression is essential for the iron‐deficiency response in Arabidopsis thaliana

“…It has been reported that NRF2/ELF8 is a single‐copy gene that is ubiquitously expressed in most plant tissues (He et al ., 2004). The loss of function of ELF8 leads to several growth defects in plants, including male gametophyte development (Shiraya et al ., 2008). In yeast, knockout mutant of the NRF2/ELF8 homolog CTR9 also showed growth defects (Oh et al ., 2004; Marton & Desiderio, 2008; Zhang et al ., 2010; Rodrigues & Lydall, 2018).…”

“…New Phytologist including male gametophyte development (Shiraya et al, 2008). In yeast, knockout mutant of the NRF2/ELF8 homolog CTR9 also showed growth defects (Oh et al, 2004;Marton & Desiderio, 2008;Zhang et al, 2010;Rodrigues & Lydall, 2018).…”

Cotranscriptional demethylation induces global loss of H3K4me2 from active genes inArabidopsis

“…Arabidopsis thaliana strain Columbia-0 (Col-0) was used as wild type (WT). The mutant alleles used in this study were: ldl3-1 (GABI_092C03) (Ishihara et al, 2019), elf7-2 (SALK_046605) (Tamada et al, 2009), elf7-3 (SALK_019433) (Cao et al, 2008; Li et al, 2019), elf8-1 (SALK_090130), elf8-2 (SALK_065364) (Shiraya et al, 2008), vip3-1 (SALK_139885) (Fal et al, 2017, 2019), vip4-4 (SALK_039374) (He et al, 2004; Li et al, 2019), vip5-1 (SALK_062223) (Oh et al, 2004), cdc73-1 (SALK_150644) (Yu & Michaels, 2010), cdkf;1-1 (SALK_148336) (Hajheidari et al, 2012), hub1-4 (SALK_122512) (Cao et al, 2008), hub2-2 (SALK_071289) (Cao et al, 2008), sdg8 ( ashh2-1 , SALK065480) (Grini et al, 2009), all of which are in the Col-0 background. Plants were grown on Murashige and Skoog (MS) media supplemented with 1% sucrose and solidified with Bacto agar under long day (16 h light/8 h darkness) photoperiods at 22ºC.…”