Integument Development in Arabidopsis Depends on Interaction of YABBY Protein INNER NO OUTER with Coactivators and Corepressors

Arabidopsis thaliana INNER NO OUTER (INO) is a YABBY protein that is essential for the initiation and development of the outer integument of ovules. Other YABBY proteins have been shown to be involved in both negative and positive regulation of expression of putative target genes. YABBY proteins have also been shown to interact with the corepressor LEUNIG (LUG) in several systems. In support of a repressive role for INO, we confirm that INO interacts with LUG and also find that INO directly interacts with SEUSS (SEU), a known corepressive partner of LUG. Further, we find that INO can directly interact with ADA2b/PROPORZ1 (PRZ1), a transcriptional coactivator that is known to interact with the histone acetyltransferase GENERAL CONTROL NONREPRESSIBLE PROTEIN 5 (GCN5, also known as HAG1). Mutations in LUG, SEU, and ADA2b/PRZ1 all lead to pleiotropic effects including a deficiency in the extension of the outer integument. Additive and synergistic effects of ada2b/prz1 and lug mutations on outer integument formation indicate that these two genes function independently to promote outer integument growth. The ino mutation is epistatic to both lug and ada2b/prz1 in the outer integument, and all three proteins are present in the nuclei of a common set of outer integument cells. This is consistent with a model where INO utilizes these coregulator proteins to activate and repress separate sets of target genes. Other Arabidopsis YABBY proteins were shown to also form complexes with ADA2b/PRZ1, and have been previously shown to interact with SEU and LUG. Thus, interaction with these corepressors and coactivator may represent a general mechanism to explain the positive and negative activities of YABBY proteins in transcriptional regulation. The LUG, SEU, and ADA2b/PRZ1 proteins would also separately be recruited to targets of other transcription factors, consistent with their roles as general coregulators, explaining the pleiotropic effects not associated with YABBY function.