Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Plantas, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Valencia, 46022, Spain.
Centro de Biotecnología y Genómica de Plantas, UPM-INIA, and E.T.S.I. Agrónomos, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Madrid, 28223, Spain.
Physiol Plant. 2015 Sep;155(1):21-32. doi: 10.1111/ppl.12327. Epub 2015 Feb 28.
The NGATHA (NGA) clade of transcription factors (TFs) forms a small subfamily of four members in Arabidopsis thaliana. NGA genes act redundantly to direct the development of apical tissues in the gynoecium, where they have been shown to be essential for style and stigma specification. In addition, NGA genes have a more general role in controlling lateral organ growth. The four NGA genes in Arabidopsis are expressed in very similar domains, although little is known about the nature of their putative regulators. Here, we have identified a conserved region within the four NGA promoters that we have used as a bait to screen a yeast library, aiming to identify such NGA regulators. Three members of the TCP family of TFs, named after the founding factors TEOSINTE BRANCHED 1, CYCLOIDEA and PROLIFERATING CELL FACTOR 1 AND 2), were recovered from this screening, of which two [TCP2 and TCP3, members of the CINCINNATA (CIN) family of TCP genes (CIN-TCP) subclade] were shown to activate the NGA3 promoter in planta. We provide evidence that support that CIN-TCP genes are true regulators of NGA gene expression, and that part of the CIN-TCP role in leaf development is mediated by NGA upregulation. Moreover, we have found that this TCP-NGA regulatory interaction is likely conserved in angiosperms, including important crop species, for which the regulation of leaf development is a target for biotechnological improvement.
NGATHA（NGA）转录因子（TF）簇在拟南芥中形成一个由四个成员组成的小亚家族。NGA 基因在指导雌蕊的顶端组织发育中具有冗余作用，在那里它们被证明对花柱和柱头的特化是必不可少的。此外，NGA 基因在控制侧生器官生长方面具有更普遍的作用。拟南芥中的四个 NGA 基因在非常相似的区域表达，尽管对其假定调节剂的性质知之甚少。在这里，我们已经确定了四个 NGA 启动子中的一个保守区域，我们将其用作诱饵筛选酵母文库，旨在鉴定这种 NGA 调节剂。我们从这次筛选中回收了三个 TEOSINTE BRANCHED 1、CYCLOIDEA 和 PROLIFERATING CELL FACTOR 1 AND 2 等家族的 TFs 成员，其中两个[TCP2 和 TCP3，CINNATA（CIN）家族的 TCP 基因（CIN-TCP）亚家族的成员]被证明在体内激活 NGA3 启动子。我们提供的证据支持 CIN-TCP 基因是 NGA 基因表达的真正调节剂，并且 CIN-TCP 在叶片发育中的部分作用是通过 NGA 的上调介导的。此外，我们发现这种 TCP-NGA 调控相互作用可能在被子植物中保守，包括重要的作物物种，其中叶片发育的调控是生物技术改良的目标。
