Organ polarity in Arabidopsis. NOZZLE physically interacts with members of the YABBY family

Plant Physiol. 2004 Aug;135(4):2172-85. doi: 10.1104/pp.104.040154. Epub 2004 Aug 6.

Abstract

Plant lateral organs exhibit proximal-distal and adaxial-abaxial polarity. In Arabidopsis, abaxial cell fate is regulated in part by putative transcription factors of the YABBY family, such as FILAMENTOUS FLOWER (FIL) and INNER NO OUTER (INO), by a mechanism that currently is not fully understood. NOZZLE (NZZ) encodes a plant-specific nuclear protein. Genetic evidence has shown that NZZ is involved in the positive feedback regulation of INO, thereby acting both as a temporal and spatial repressor of INO transcription. This mechanism allows the ovule primordium to complete its proximal-distal organization, prior to the onset of adaxial-abaxial development in the chalaza. During our study, we isolated FIL in a yeast two-hybrid screen using NZZ as bait. In vitro pull-down experiments confirmed the NZZ-FIL interaction. NZZ also bound INO and YABBY3, suggesting that NZZ generally interacts with YABBY proteins in vitro. The polar-charged region of NZZ was necessary and sufficient to bind to the zinc finger of INO and to interact with its C terminus carrying the high mobility group-like domain. We suggest that NZZ coordinates proximal-distal patterning and adaxial-abaxial polarity establishment in the developing ovule by directly binding to INO.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Arabidopsis / anatomy & histology*
  • Arabidopsis / genetics
  • Arabidopsis / metabolism*
  • Arabidopsis Proteins / genetics
  • Arabidopsis Proteins / metabolism*
  • Base Sequence
  • Binding Sites
  • Cloning, Molecular
  • DNA Primers
  • Flowers / metabolism
  • Flowers / ultrastructure
  • Nuclear Proteins / genetics
  • Nuclear Proteins / metabolism*
  • Plasmids / genetics
  • Recombinant Fusion Proteins / metabolism
  • Repressor Proteins / genetics
  • Repressor Proteins / metabolism*
  • Zinc Fingers

Substances

  • Arabidopsis Proteins
  • DNA Primers
  • Nuclear Proteins
  • Recombinant Fusion Proteins
  • Repressor Proteins
  • SPL protein, Arabidopsis
  • YABBY3 protein, Arabidopsis