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The interacting MYB75 and KNAT7 transcription factors modulate secondary cell wall deposition both in stems and seed coat in Arabidopsis

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Abstract

The Arabidopsis thaliana KNAT7 (KNOX family) and MYB75 (MYB family) transcription factors were each shown earlier to interact in yeast two-hybrid assays, and to modulate secondary cell wall formation in inflorescence stems. We demonstrate here that their interaction also occurs in vivo, and that specific domains of each protein mediate this process. The participation of these interacting transcription factors in secondary cell wall formation was then extended to the developing seed coat through the use of targeted transcript analysis and SEM in single loss-of-function mutants. Novel genetic and protein–protein interactions of MYB75 and KNAT7 with other transcription factors known to be involved in seed coat regulation were also identified. We propose that a MYB75-associated protein complex is likely to be involved in modulating secondary cell wall biosynthesis in both the Arabidopsis inflorescence stem and seed coat, and that at least some parts of the transcriptional regulatory network in the two tissues are functionally conserved.

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Abbreviations

Y2H:

Yeast two-hybrid

SEM:

Scanning electron micrograph

PCR:

Polymerase chain reaction

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Brad Ross and the UBC Bioimaging facility for SEM support. We gratefully acknowledge Dr Joachim Ührig (Botanical Institute, Universität Köln) for the kind gift of the pBatTL vectors used for the BiFC assays. Funding for this work was provided by Discovery Grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) to SDM, GWH, CJD, and BEE, the NSERC Green Crops Network and by NSERC scholarship support to AB.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Michael Smith Laboratories, University of British Columbia, 2185 East Mall, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z4, Canada

    Apurva Bhargava & Brian E. Ellis

  2. Department of Botany, University of British Columbia, 6270 University Blvd, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z4, Canada

    Apurva Bhargava, Abdul Ahad, Shucai Wang, George W. Haughn, Carl J. Douglas & Brian E. Ellis

  3. Department of Wood Science, University of British Columbia, 2424 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z4, Canada

    Shawn D. Mansfield

  4. Key Laboratory of Molecular Epigenetics of MOE, Institute of Genetics and Cytology, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, 130024, China

    Shucai Wang

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  1. Apurva Bhargava
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  2. Abdul Ahad
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  3. Shucai Wang
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Correspondence to Brian E. Ellis.

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Bhargava, A., Ahad, A., Wang, S. et al. The interacting MYB75 and KNAT7 transcription factors modulate secondary cell wall deposition both in stems and seed coat in Arabidopsis. Planta 237, 1199–1211 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00425-012-1821-9

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