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The E2FD/DEL2 factor is a component of a regulatory network controlling cell proliferation and development in Arabidopsis

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Abstract

An emerging view of plant cell cycle regulators, including the E2F transcription factors, implicates them in the integration of cell proliferation and development. Arabidopsis encodes six E2F proteins that can act as activators or repressors of E2F-responsive genes. E2FA, E2FB and E2FC interact with the retinoblastoma-like RBR protein and bind to DNA together with their DP partners. In contrast, E2FD, E2FE and E2FF (also known as DEL2, DEL1 and DEL3) are atypical E2Fs that possess duplicated DNA binding regions, lack trans-activating and RBR-binding domains and are believed to act as transcriptional inhibitors/repressors. E2FE/DEL1 has been shown to inhibit the endocycle and E2FF/DEL3 appears to control cell expansion but the role of E2FD/DEL2 has not been reported so far. In this study, we investigated the expression of E2FD/DEL2 and analysed the accumulation of its product. These studies revealed that E2FD/DEL2 accumulation is subject to negative post-translational regulation mediated by the plant hormone auxin. Moreover, the analysis of mutant and transgenic plants characterized by altered expression of E2FD/DEL2 has revealed that this atypical E2F can affect plant growth by promoting cell proliferation and repressing cell elongation. Overexpression of E2FD/DEL2 increased the expression of E2FA, E2FB and E2FE/DEL1 whereas its inactivation led to the up-regulation of genes encoding repressors of cell division. These results suggest that E2FD/DEL2 is part of a regulatory network that controls the balance between cell proliferation and development in Arabidopsis.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by grants from the Ministero dell’Università e della Ricerca (PRIN 2006 to RC and DA) and by a grant from the National Science Foundation (MCB-0110536 to LH-B). We thank Lieven De Veylder for the kind gift of the e2fd T-DNA insertion line. We are grateful to Paolo Longoni for his help with RT-PCR assays and Sharon Settlage for helpul comments. We also thank Philip Benfey for sharing time and resources for improving our experiments, as well as Jose Dinneny, Siobhan Brady, Terri Long and Anjali Iyer-Pascuzzi for their comments on the manuscript, and Leslie Eibest for the ESEM analysis at Duke University.

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  1. Rosangela Sozzani

    Present address: Department of Biology, Duke University, 4128 FFSC Building, Durham, NC, 27708, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Genetics and Microbiology, University of Pavia, Via Ferrata 1, 27100, Pavia, Italy

    Rosangela Sozzani, Caterina Maggio & Rino Cella

  2. Department of Botanical, Ecological and Geological Sciences, University of Sassari, Via Piandanna, 07100, Sassari, Italy

    Roberta Giordo, Elisabetta Umana & Diego Albani

  3. Department of Molecular and Structural Biochemistry, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 27695, USA

    Jose Trinidad Ascencio-Ibañez & Linda Hanley-Bowdoin

  4. Institute of Plant Biotechnology, University of Paris-XI, 91400, Orsay, France

    Catherine Bergounioux

  5. Center for Biotechnology Development and Biodiversity Research, University of Sassari, 07100, Sassari, Italy

    Diego Albani

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  1. Rosangela Sozzani
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Correspondence to Diego Albani.

Additional information

Rosangela Sozzani and Caterina Maggio have contributed equally to this work.

Sequence data from this article can be found in the EMBL/GenBank data libraries under accession numbers: E2FD (AJ417835) and E2FE (AJ417835). The AGI locus identifiers are: E2FD/DEL2 (At5g14960), E2FE/DEL1 (At3g48160).

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11103_2009_9577_MOESM1_ESM.jpg

Supplemental Fig. 1 Plant phenotypes. (A) ESEM of the adaxial epidermal surface of cotyledons (upper panel) and leaves (lower panel) of 6-day-old wild-type (Col-0), e2fd and E2FD OE seedlings. Bars are 100μm. (B) Phenotype of wild-type (Col-0), e2fd and E2FD OE line 8 plants 22 days after sowing (JPG 967 kb)

11103_2009_9577_MOESM2_ESM.jpg

Supplemental Fig. 2 Immunolocalization of E2FD/DEL2 and E2FE/DEL1 in Arabidopsis tissues. Accumulation of E2FD/DEL2 (a) or E2FE/DEL1 (b) in SAM. Accumulation of E2FD/DEL2 (c) and E2FE/DEL1 (d) in young leaves and control (e). Analysis of mature leaves for accumulation of E2FD/DEL2 (f) and E2FE/DEL1 (g) and control (h). Immunolocalization of E2FD/DEL2 (i), E2FE/DEL1 (j) and control reaction (k) in unpollinated pistils. For the negative controls shown in e, h and k, treatment with the primary antibody was omitted (JPG 5190 kb)

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Sozzani, R., Maggio, C., Giordo, R. et al. The E2FD/DEL2 factor is a component of a regulatory network controlling cell proliferation and development in Arabidopsis. Plant Mol Biol 72, 381–395 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11103-009-9577-8

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