A friend in need is a friend indeed: understanding stress-associated transcriptional networks of plant metabolism using cliques of coordinately expressed genes.

The response of plants to environmental cues, particularly stresses, involves the coordinated induction or repression of gene expression. In a previous study, we developed a bioinformatics approach to analyze the mutual expression pattern of genes encoding transcription factors and metabolic enzymes upon exposure of Arabidopsis plants to abiotic and biotic stresses. The analysis resulted in three gene clusters, each displaying a unique expression pattern. In the present addendum, we address the composition of each of these three clusters in regard to the functional identity of their encoded proteins as enzymes or transcription factors.