Abstract
A cDNA library enriched for mRNAs encoding ESTs that increased in abundance during short days was constructed by SSH from leaf tissues of a photoperiod sensitive soybean. The proteins predicted to be encoded by the mRNAs were inferred to be involved in diverse functions. A full-length mRNA that encoded a soybean ortholog of the transcription factor RAV was isolated by RACE, containing an open reading frame of 1,056 bp. The GmRAV protein included an AP2/ERF domain and a B3 domain. GmRAV mRNA abundance was increased in SDs following leaf treatments with ABA and decreased following BR treatment. Transgenic tobacco overexpressing GmRAV showed morphological and physiological alterations such as slower plant growth rate (dwarfing), reduced root elongation, delayed flowering time and reduced photosynthetic rate, reduced chlorophyll contents in leaves. Therefore GmRAV may be a negative regulator acting on both photosynthesis and growth. Transgenic tobacco also showed accelerated senescence with both dark and ABA treatments versus the longer longevity compared to the wild type in LDs. The analyses of soybean leaf, root and stem organs showed that GmRAV mRNA abundances were higher in SDs than in LDs. Therefore, the enhanced expression of GmRAV in SDs compared to LDs may have caused the inhibited growth of soybean leaf, root and stem.
Similar content being viewed by others
Abbreviations
- ABA:
-
Abscisic acid
- 6-BA:
-
6-Benzyladenine
- epiBL:
-
epiBrassinolide
- BR:
-
Brassinsteroid
- GmRAV:
-
Soybean RAV-like DNA-binding protein
- LD:
-
Long-day
- RACE:
-
Rapid amplification of cDNA ends
- SD:
-
Short-day
- SSH:
-
Suppression subtractive hybridization
References
Asamizu E, Nakamura Y, Sato S, Tabata S (2000) A large scale analysis of cDNA in Arabidopsis thaliana: generation of 12028 non-redundant expressed sequence tags from normalized and size-selected cDNA libraries. DNA Res 7:175–180
Buchanan-Wollaston V, Earl S, Harrison E, Mathas E, Navabpour S, Page T, Pink D (2003) The molecular analysis of leaf senescence—a genomics approach. Plant Biotechnol J 1:3–22
Buchanan-Wollaston V, Page T, Harrison E, Breeze E, Lim PO, Nam HG, Lin JF, Wu S-H, Swidzinski J, Ishizaki K, Leaver CJ (2005) Comparative transcriptome analysis reveals significant differences in gene expression and signaling pathways between developmental and dark/starvation-induced senescence in Arabidopsis. Plant J 42:567–585
Dellaporta SL, Wood J, Hicks JB (1983) A plant DNA minipreparation: version II. Plant Mol Biol Rep 1:19–21
Fehr WR (1987) Principles of cultivar development. In: Theory and technique, vol. 1. Macmillan, New York
Fehr WR, Caviness CE (1977) Stages of soybean development. Iowa Agricultural Experimental Station Special Report, p 80
Finkelstein RR, Wang ML, Lynch TJ, Rao S, Goodman HM (1998) The Arabidopsis abscisic acid response locus ABI4 encodes an APETALA 2 domain protein. Plant Cell 10:1043–1054
Gan S, Amasino RM (1997) Making sense of senescence. Molecular genetic regulation and manipulation of leaf senescence. Plant Physiol 113:313–319
Gepstein S, Sabehi G, Carp MJ, Hajouj T, Nesher MFO, Yariv I, Dor C, Bassani M (2003) Large-scale identification of leaf senescence-associated genes. Plant J 36:629–642
Grant D, Cregan P, Shoemaker RC (2000) Genome organization in dicots: genome duplication in Arabidopsis and synteny between soybean and Arabidopsis. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 97:4168–4173
Gutterson N, Reuber TL (2004) Regulation of disease resistance pathways by AP2/ERF transcription factors. Curr Opin Plant Biol 7:1–7
Han T, Wu C, Tong Z, Mentreddy RS, Tan K, Gai J (2006) Postflowering photoperiod regulates vegetative growth and reproductive development of soybean. Environ Exp Bot 55:120–129
Horsch RB, Fry JE, Hoffman NC, Eicholtz D, Rogers SG, Fraley RT (1985) A simple and general method for transforming gene into plants. Science 227:1229–1231
Iqbal MJ, Yaegashi S, Njiti VN, Ahsan R, Cryder KL, Lightfoot DA (2002) Resistance locus pyramids alter transcript abundance in soybean roots inoculated with Fusarium solani f.sp. glycines. Mol Genet Genomic 268:407–417
Kagaya Y, Ohmiya K, Hattori T (1999) RAV1, a novel DNA binding protein, binds top bipartite recognition sequence through two distinct DNA-binding domains uniquely found in higher plants. Nucleic Acids Res 27:470–478
Lichtenthaler HK (1987) Chlorophylls and carotenoids: pigments of photosynthetic biomembranes. Methods Enzymol 148:350–382
Lin X, Kaul S, Rounsley S, Shea TP, Benito MI, Town CD, Fujii CY, Mason T, Bowman CL, Barnstead M, Feldblyum TV, Buell CR, Ketchum KA, Lee J, Ronning CM, Koo HL, Moffat KS, Cronin LA, Shen M, Pai G, Van Aken S, Umayam L, Tallon LJ, Gill JE, Venter JC et al (1999) Sequence and analysis of chromosome 2 of the plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Nature 402:761–768
Njiti VN, Lightfoot DA (2006) Genetic analysis infers Dt loci underlie resistance to SDS caused by Fusarium virguliforme in indeterminate soybeans. Can J Plant Sci 41:83–89
Riechmann JL, Meyerowitz EM (1998) The AP2/EREBP family of plant transcription factors. Biol Chem 379:633–646
Shoemaker R, Keim P, Vodkin L, Retzel E, Clifton SW et al (2002) A compilation of soybean ESTs: generation and analysis. Genome 45:329–338
Shultz JL, Ray JD, Lightfoot DA (2007) A sequence based synteny map between soybean and Arabidopsis thaliana. BMC Genomics 8:8. doi:10.1186/1471-2164-8-8
Simpson GG, Dean C (2002) Arabidopsis, the rosetta stone of flowering time? Science 296:285–289
Smart CM (1994) Gene expression during leaf senescence. New Phytol 129:419–448
Smart CM, Hosken SE, Thomas H, Greaves JA, Blair BG, Schuch W (1995) The timing of maize leaf senescence and characterization of senescence-related cDNAs. Physiol Plant 93:673–682
Ulmasov T, Hagen G, Guifoyle TJ (1997) ARF1, a transcription factor that binds to an auxin responsive elements. Science 276:1865–1868
Yuan Z, Njiti V, Meksem K, Iqbal MJ, Triwitayakorn K, Kassem MA, Davis GT, Schmidt ME, Lightfoot DA (2002) Identification of yield loci in soybean populations that segregate for disease resistance. Crop Sci 42:271–277
Acknowledgments
This project was conducted in the Key Laboratory of Soybean Biology of Chinese Education Ministry and financially supported by Natural Scientific Foundation Projects, National High Technology (863) Projects (contract no. 2006AA100104-4 and 2006AA10Z1F1) and National 973 Project. The technical assistance of Dr. Genlou Sun is gratefully acknowledged.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Zhao, L., Luo, Q., Yang, C. et al. A RAV-like transcription factor controls photosynthesis and senescence in soybean. Planta 227, 1389–1399 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00425-008-0711-7
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00425-008-0711-7