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Mediator Subunits MED16, MED14, and MED2 Are Required for Activation of ABRE-Dependent Transcription in Arabidopsis

Lee, Morgan; Dominguez-Ferreras, Anna; Kaliyadasa, Ewon; Huang, Wei-Jie; Antony, Edna; Stevenson, Tracey; Lehmann, Silke; Schäfer, Patrick; Knight, Marc R.; Ntoukakis, Vardis; Knight, Heather

Mediator Subunits MED16, MED14, and MED2 Are Required for Activation of ABRE-Dependent Transcription in Arabidopsis Thumbnail


Authors

Morgan Lee

Anna Dominguez-Ferreras

Ewon Kaliyadasa

Wei-Jie Huang

Edna Antony

Tracey Stevenson

Silke Lehmann

Patrick Schäfer

Vardis Ntoukakis



Abstract

The Mediator complex controls transcription of most eukaryotic genes with individual subunits required for the control of particular gene regulons in response to various perturbations. In this study, we reveal the roles of the plant Mediator subunits MED16, MED14, and MED2 in regulating transcription in response to the phytohormone abscisic acid (ABA) and we determine which cis elements are under their control. Using synthetic promoter reporters we established an effective system for testing relationships between subunits and specific cis-acting motifs in protoplasts. Our results demonstrate that MED16, MED14, and MED2 are required for the full transcriptional activation by ABA of promoters containing both the ABRE (ABA-responsive element) and DRE (drought-responsive element). Using synthetic promoter motif concatamers, we showed that ABA-responsive activation of the ABRE but not the DRE motif was dependent on these three Mediator subunits. Furthermore, the three subunits were required for the control of water loss from leaves but played no role in ABA-dependent growth inhibition, highlighting specificity in their functions. Our results identify new roles for three Mediator subunits, provide a direct demonstration of their function and highlight that our experimental approach can be utilized to identify the function of subunits of plant transcriptional regulators.

Citation

Lee, M., Dominguez-Ferreras, A., Kaliyadasa, E., Huang, W., Antony, E., Stevenson, T., …Knight, H. (2021). Mediator Subunits MED16, MED14, and MED2 Are Required for Activation of ABRE-Dependent Transcription in Arabidopsis. Frontiers in Plant Science, 12, Article 649720. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2021.649720

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Feb 12, 2021
Online Publication Date Mar 11, 2021
Publication Date 2021
Deposit Date Mar 11, 2021
Publicly Available Date Mar 12, 2021
Journal Frontiers in Plant Science
Publisher Frontiers Media
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 12
Article Number 649720
DOI https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2021.649720
Public URL https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1251244

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Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
© 2021 Lee, Dominguez-Ferreras, Kaliyadasa, Huang, Antony, Stevenson, Lehmann, Schäfer, Knight, Ntoukakis and Knight. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.






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