SCARECROW-LIKE15 interacts with HISTONE DEACETYLASE19 and is essential for repressing the seed maturation programme

• Published in: Nature communications 2015-07, Vol.6 (1), p.7243-7243, Article 7243
• Main Authors: Gao, Ming-Jun, Li, Xiang, Huang, Jun, Gropp, Gordon M., Gjetvaj, Branimir, Lindsay, Donna L., Wei, Shu, Coutu, Cathy, Chen, Zhixiang, Wan, Xiao-Chun, Hannoufa, Abdelali, Lydiate, Derek J., Gruber, Margaret Y., Chen, Z. Jeffrey, Hegedus, Dwayne D.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 13; 14; 38; 42; 631/208/2491; 631/337/100/102; 631/449/2679/2682; 82; Arabidopsis - embryology; Arabidopsis - enzymology; Arabidopsis Proteins - genetics; Arabidopsis Proteins - metabolism; Biology; Epigenetics; Gene expression; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; Histone Deacetylases - metabolism; Humanities and Social Sciences; multidisciplinary; Mutation; Phase transitions; Phenotype; Plant Vascular Bundle - metabolism; Proteins; Repressor Proteins - genetics; Repressor Proteins - metabolism; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Seedlings - metabolism; Seeds; Seeds - growth & development; Transcription factors; Two-Hybrid System Techniques
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/ncomms8243

Epigenetic regulation of gene expression is critical for controlling embryonic properties during the embryo-to-seedling phase transition. Here we report that a HISTONE DEACETYLASE19 (HDA19)-associated regulator, SCARECROW-LIKE15 (SCL15), is essential for repressing the seed maturation programme in vegetative tissues. SCL15 is expressed in and GFP-tagged SCL15 predominantly localizes to, the vascular bundles particularly in the phloem companion cells and neighbouring specialized cells. Mutation of SCL15 leads to a global shift in gene expression in seedlings to a profile resembling late embryogenesis in seeds. In scl15 seedlings, many genes involved in seed maturation are markedly derepressed with concomitant accumulation of seed 12S globulin; this is correlated with elevated levels of histone acetylation at a subset of seed-specific loci. SCL15 physically interacts with HDA19 and direct targets of HDA19–SCL15 association are identified. These studies reveal that SCL15 acts as an HDA19-associated regulator to repress embryonic traits in seedlings. Epigenetic regulation is critical for controlling gene expression during the transition from embryo to seedling in plants. Here Gao et al. report that in Arabidopsis , the SCARECROW-LIKE15 protein physically interacts with a histone deacetylase to repress expression of embryonic traits in seedlings.