Multifaceted functions of histone deacetylases in stress response

• Published in: Trends in plant science 2023-11, Vol.28 (11), p.1245-1256
• Main Authors: Cui, Xiaoyun, Dard, Avilien, Reichheld, Jean-Philippe, Zhou, Dao-Xiu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: acetylation; Arabidopsis thaliana; Biochemistry; Biochemistry, Molecular Biology; Botanics; chromatin; epigenetics; gene expression regulation; Genomics; histone deacetylase; histones; Life Sciences; lysine; metabolic enzymes; protein lysine acetylation/acylation; rice; stress granules; stress response; transcription factors; Vegetal Biology
• ISSN: 1360-1385; 1878-4372
• DOI: 10.1016/j.tplants.2023.06.006

Histone deacetylases (HDACs) are important chromatin regulators essential for plant tolerance to adverse environments. In addition to histone deacetylation and epigenetic regulation, HDACs deacetylate non-histone proteins and thereby regulate multiple pathways. Like other post-translational modifications (PTMs), acetylation/deacetylation is a reversible switch regulating different cellular processes in plants. Here, by focusing on results obtained in arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) and rice plants, we analyze the different aspects of HDAC functions and the underlying regulatory mechanisms in modulating plant responses to stress. We hypothesize that, in addition to epigenetic regulation of gene expression, HDACs can also control plant tolerance to stress by regulating transcription, translation, and metabolic activities and possibly assembly–disassembly of stress granules (SGs) through lysine deacetylation of non-histone proteins. Members of the histone deacetylase (HDAC) family have distinct and sometimes opposite functions in plant response to diverse stresses such as salt, drought, light, temperature, or immunity. HDACs are essential players in metabolic control of plant response to stress.HDACs sense and respond to stress in different ways, such as interacting with different protein partners, partitioning between cytoplasm and nucleus, and switching post-translational modifications.Besides histone deacetylation, HDACs also deacetylate a large spectrum of non-histone proteins, including transcription factors, signaling proteins, energy metabolic enzymes, ribosomal and translational proteins, and microtubules to control their activity under stress.HDAC-mediated lysine deacetylation may regulate stress granule assembly and disassembly during plant adaptation to stress.