Intronic Sequence Regulates Sugar-Dependent Expression of Arabidopsis thaliana Production of Anthocyanin Pigment-1/MYB75

PLoS One. 2016 Jun 1;11(6):e0156673. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0156673. eCollection 2016.

Abstract

Sucrose-specific regulation of gene expression is recognized as an important signaling response, distinct from glucose, which serves to modulate plant growth, metabolism, and physiology. The Arabidopsis MYB transcription factor Production of Anthocyanin Pigment-1 (PAP1) plays a key role in anthocyanin biosynthesis and expression of PAP1 is known to be regulated by sucrose. Sucrose treatment of Arabidopsis seedlings led to a 20-fold induction of PAP1 transcript, which represented a 6-fold increase over levels in glucose-treated seedlings. The PAP1 promoter was not sufficient for conferring a sucrose response to a reporter gene and did not correctly report expression of PAP1 in plants. Although we identified 3 putative sucrose response elements in the PAP1 gene, none were found to be necessary for this response. Using deletion analysis, we identified a 90 bp sequence within intron 1 of PAP1 that is necessary for the sucrose response. This sequence was sufficient for conferring a sucrose response to a minimal promoter: luciferase reporter when present in multiple copies upstream of the promoter. This work lays the foundation for dissecting the sucrose signaling pathway of PAP1 and contributes to understanding the interplay between sucrose signaling, anthocyanin biosynthesis, and stress responses.

MeSH terms

  • Anthocyanins / biosynthesis*
  • Arabidopsis / genetics
  • Arabidopsis / metabolism*
  • Arabidopsis Proteins / genetics*
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Plant
  • Genes, Plant
  • Introns*
  • Pancreatitis-Associated Proteins
  • Sucrose / metabolism*
  • Transcription Factors / genetics*

Substances

  • Anthocyanins
  • Arabidopsis Proteins
  • PAP1 protein, Arabidopsis
  • Pancreatitis-Associated Proteins
  • REG3A protein, human
  • Transcription Factors
  • Sucrose

Grants and funding

The authors have no support or funding to report.