Arabidopsis C3HC4‐RING finger E3 ubiquitin ligase AtAIRP4 positively regulates stress‐responsive abscisic acid signaling. Issue 1 (19th November 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Yang, Liang; Liu, Qiaohong; Liu, Zhibin; Yang, Hao; Wang, Jianmei; Li, Xufeng; Yang, Yi
• Is Part Of: Journal of integrative plant biology. Volume 58:Issue 1(2016)
• Page Start: 67
• Page End: 80
• Publication Date: 2015-11-19
• Subjects: AtAIRP4 -- abscisic acid -- drought stress -- E3 ligase -- salt stress; Plants -- Periodicals; Plants -- China -- Periodicals; Electronic journals; 580.5
• DOI: 10.1111/jipb.12364
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1672-9072

Abstract

Abstract: Degradation of proteins via the ubiquitin system is an important step in many stress signaling pathways in plants. E3 ligases recognize ligand proteins and dictate the high specificity of protein degradation, and thus, play a pivotal role in ubiquitination. Here, we identified a gene, named Arabidopsis thaliana abscisic acid (ABA)‐insensitive RING protein 4 ( AtAIRP4 ), which is induced by ABA and other stress treatments. AtAIRP4 encodes a cellular protein with a C3HC4‐RING finger domain in its C‐terminal side, which has in vitro E3 ligase activity. Loss of AtAIRP4 leads to a decrease in sensitivity of root elongation and stomatal closure to ABA, whereas overexpression of this gene in the T‐DNA insertion mutant atairp4 effectively recovered the ABA‐associated phenotypes. AtAIRP4 overexpression plants were hypersensitive to salt and osmotic stresses during seed germination, and showed drought avoidance compared with the wild‐type and atairp4 mutant plants. In addition, the expression levels of ABA‐ and drought‐induced marker genes in AtAIRP4 overexpression plants were markedly higher than those in the wild‐type and atairp4 mutant plants. Hence, these results indicate that AtAIRP4 may act as a positive regulator of ABA‐mediated drought avoidance and a negative regulator of salt tolerance in Arabidopsis . Abstract : Protein degradation mediated by ubiquitin plays a primary role in plant stress signaling transduction. E3 ligases recognize the acceptor protein and play a pivotal role in ubiquitination. Here, we identified that AtAIRP4, a C3HC4‐RING finger E3 ligase, is a positive regulator of ABA‐mediated drought and salt tolerance in Arabidopsis .