Membrane-tethered transcription factors in Arabidopsis thaliana: novel regulators in stress response and development

Membrane-tethered transcription factors (MTTFs) differ from cytosolic transcription factors (TF) in that they are innately membrane-bound. To attain TF activity, MTTFs are released from the membrane anchor as a result of proteolytic cleavage. This enables MTTFs to travel to the nucleus and modulate gene expression. Arabidopsis MTTFs characterized to date belong to either the bZIP or the NAC family. In this review, we highlight the most recent findings on Arabidopsis MTTFs that ascribe different yet important roles to these proteins: the MTTFs in the bZIP family appear to regulate stress signaling pathways, whereas members of the NAC family are involved in both development and stress response.