Institute of Systems Biology, Pusan National University, Busan 46241, Korea.
Department of Integrated Biological Science, Pusan National University, Busan 46241, Korea.
Int J Mol Sci. 2022 Jan 29;23(3):1572. doi: 10.3390/ijms23031572.
CCCH zinc finger proteins are a large protein family and are classified as either tandem CCCH zinc finger (TZF) or non-TZF proteins. The roles of TZF genes in several plants have been well determined, whereas the functions of many non-TZF genes in plants remain uncharacterized. Herein, we describe biological and molecular functions of AtC3H12, an Arabidopsis non-TZF protein containing three CCCH zinc finger motifs. AtC3H12 has orthologs in several plant species but has no paralog in Arabidopsis. -overexpressing transgenic plants (OXs) germinated slower than wild-type (WT) plants, whereas mutants germinated faster than WT plants. The fresh weight (FW) and primary root lengths of OX seedlings were lighter and shorter than those of WT seedlings, respectively. In contrast, FW and primary root lengths of seedlings were heavier and longer than those of WT seedlings, respectively. AtC3H12 was localized in the nucleus and displayed transactivation activity in both yeast and Arabidopsis. We found that the 97-197 aa region of AtC3H12 is an important part for its transactivation activity. Detection of expression levels and analysis of Arabidopsis transgenic plants harboring a :: construct showed that expression increases as the Arabidopsis seedlings develop. Taken together, our results demonstrate that AtC3H12 negatively affects seed germination and seedling development as a nuclear transcriptional activator in Arabidopsis. To our knowledge, this is the first report to show that non-TZF proteins negatively affect plant development as nuclear transcriptional activators.
CCCH 锌指蛋白是一个庞大的蛋白质家族，可分为串联 CCCH 锌指 (TZF) 或非-TZF 蛋白。几种植物中的 TZF 基因的作用已得到很好的确定，而许多植物中非-TZF 基因的功能仍未被描述。本文描述了拟南芥非 TZF 蛋白 AtC3H12 的生物学和分子功能，该蛋白含有三个 CCCH 锌指结构域。AtC3H12 在几种植物物种中有同源物，但在拟南芥中没有直系同源物。AtC3H12 的过表达转基因植物 (OXs) 的萌发速度比野生型 (WT) 植物慢，而 的突变体的萌发速度比 WT 植物快。OX 幼苗的鲜重 (FW) 和主根长度比 WT 幼苗轻且短，而 的幼苗的 FW 和主根长度比 WT 幼苗重且长。AtC3H12 定位于细胞核中，在酵母和拟南芥中均显示转录激活活性。我们发现 AtC3H12 的 97-197 aa 区域是其转录激活活性的重要部分。对表达水平的检测和含有 :: 构建体的拟南芥转基因植物的分析表明，随着拟南芥幼苗的发育， 的表达增加。综上所述，我们的结果表明，AtC3H12 作为核转录激活因子在拟南芥中负调控种子萌发和幼苗发育。据我们所知，这是第一个表明非-TZF 蛋白作为核转录激活因子负调控植物发育的报告。
