Journal
MOLECULAR PLANT
Volume 15, Issue 11, Pages 1725-1743Publisher
CELL PRESS
DOI: 10.1016/j.molp.2022.09.018
Keywords
plant thermomorphogenesis; WRKY transcription factor; TCP transcription factor; ABT1; PIF4
Categories
Funding
- National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars of China [31725005]
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [31970194]
- National Key Research and Development Program of China [2017YFA0503800]
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Increases in recorded high temperatures are causing changes in plant growth and decreasing crop productivity. A study has identified ABT1/WRKY14 as a critical repressor of plant thermomorphogenesis and proposed that ABT1/WRKY14, TCP5, and PIF4 form a regulatory module to fine-tune PIF4 activity and temperature-dependent plant growth.
Increases in recorded high temperatures around the world are causing plant thermomorphogenesis and decreasing crop productivity. PHYTOCHROME INTERACTING FACTOR 4 (PIF4) is a central positive regu-lator of plant thermomorphogenesis. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying PIF4-regulated ther-momorphogenesis remain largely unclear. In this study, we identified ABNORMAL THERMOMORPHOGEN-ESIS 1 (ABT1) as an important negative regulator of PIF4 and plant thermomorphogenesis. Overexpression of ABT1 in the activation tagging mutant abt1-D caused shorter hypocotyls and petioles under moderately high temperature (HT). ABT1 encodes WRKY14, which belongs to subgroup II of the WRKY transcription factors. Overexpression of ABT1/WRKY14 or its close homologs, including ABT2/WRKY35, ABT3/ WRKY65, and ABT4/WRKY69in transgenic plants caused insensitivity to HT, whereas the quadruple mutant abt1 abt2 abt3 abt4 exhibited greater sensitivity to HT. ABTs were expressed in hypocotyls, cotyledons, shoot apical meristems, and leaves, but their expression were suppressed by HT. Biochemical assays showed that ABT1 can interact with TCP5, a known positive regulator of PIF4, and interrupt the formation of the TCP5-PIF4 complex and repress its transcriptional activation activity. Genetic analysis showed that ABT1 functioned antagonistically with TCP5, BZR1, and PIF4 in plant thermomorphogenesis. Taken together, our results identify ABT1/WRKY14 as a critical repressor of plant thermomorphogenesis and suggest that ABT1/WRKY14, TCP5, and PIF4 may form a sophisticated regulatory module to fine-tune PIF4 activity and temperature-dependent plant growth.
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