BOLITA, an Arabidopsis AP2/ERF-like transcription factor that affects cell expansion and proliferation/differentiation pathways

• Published in: Plant molecular biology 2006-12, Vol.62 (6), p.825-843
• Main Authors: Marsch-Martinez, Nayelli, Greco, Raffaella, Becker, Jörg D, Dixit, Shital, Bergervoet, Jan H W, Karaba, Aarati, de Folter, Stefan, Pereira, Andy
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Arabidopsis; Arabidopsis - cytology; Arabidopsis - genetics; Arabidopsis - growth & development; Arabidopsis Proteins - genetics; Arabidopsis Proteins - physiology; Biosynthesis; Cell Differentiation - genetics; Cell Differentiation - physiology; Cell Division - genetics; Cell Division - physiology; Cell Size; Culture Techniques - methods; Cyclins - genetics; d-type cyclin; dna-binding; Gene expression; Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental - genetics; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant - genetics; Genome, Plant - genetics; genome-wide analysis; Glucuronidase - genetics; Glucuronidase - metabolism; Leaves; microarray analysis; Mutagenesis, Insertional; Mutation - genetics; negative regulator; Nicotiana - genetics; Nicotiana - growth & development; organ size; Phenotype; Plant Leaves - cytology; Plant Leaves - genetics; Plant Leaves - growth & development; Plants, Genetically Modified; Promoter Regions, Genetic - genetics; response regulators; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; Signal Transduction - genetics; Signal Transduction - physiology; signal-transduction; size control; Transcription Factors - genetics; Transcription Factors - physiology
• ISSN: 0167-4412; 1573-5028
• DOI: 10.1007/s11103-006-9059-1

The BOLITA (BOL) gene, an AP2/ERF transcription factor, was characterized with the help of an activation tag mutant and overexpression lines in Arabidopsis and tobacco. The leaf size of plants overexpressing BOL was smaller than wild type plants due to a reduction in both cell size and cell number. Moreover, severe overexpressors showed ectopic callus formation in roots. Accordingly, global gene expression analysis using the overexpression mutant reflected the alterations in cell proliferation, differentiation and growth through expression changes in RBR, CYCD, and TCP genes, as well as genes involved in cell expansion (i.e. expansins and the actin remodeling factor ADF5). Furthermore, the expression of hormone signaling (i.e. auxin and cytokinin), biosynthesis (i.e. ethylene and jasmonic acid) and regulatory genes was found to be perturbed in bol-D mutant leaves.