C2H2 zinc finger proteins related with plant stress.
Abstract
Zinc finger (ZnF) proteins are the largest transcription factors family. They constitute of nine sub-groups including Cys2His2, Cys3His, Cys3HisCys4, Cys2HisCys5, Cys4HisCys3, Cys2HisCys, Cys4, Cys6 and Cys8. ZnFs perform tasks of recognizing DNA, packaging RNA, transcriptional activity, regulating apoptosis, folding and collecting proteins, and binding lipids. One of the largest sub-groups of these proteins is ZF-Cys2His2, containing SIZ1, ZAT, ZAT7, ZFP1, ZFP252, DST, ZFP1, SIZF3, ZFP179, ZjZFN1, SICZFP1, and ZF-Cys2His2 proteins are found in plants tissues and fulfill important tasks in their defense to struggle with biotic and abiotic stresses (i.e., salt, drought, cold, oxidative). The aim of this chapter is to reveal importance of ZF-Cys2His2 proteins against various stress conditions.
Keywords
- Cys2His2 Zinc finger proteins
- plant stress physiology
- salinity stress
- cold stress
- oxidative stress
1. Introduction
Cys2His2 zinc finger (ZF-Cys2His2) proteins have been found in a number of plants including
The world population has exceeded 7.5 billion. To supply the nutritional needs of this population, it is important to know the proteins and genes related to the response of plants to stress conditions. In this context, to increase the durability and yield of plants, transgenic plant researches are carried out. And the most commonly focused proteins in these researches are ZF-Cys2His2 proteins. For this reason, in this chapter, the changes occurring in ZF-Cys2His2 proteins with transgenic methods and various stress conditions and what these changes bring to the plant have been discussed (Table 1).
The kind of C2H2 zinc finger proteins | The kind of stress | References |
---|---|---|
AtSIZ1 | Salt stress | [4] |
GmZAT4 | Salt stress | [5] |
ZAT7 | Salt stress | [6] |
AhZFP1 | Salt stress | [7] |
ZFP252 | Salt stress | [8] |
ZmZF1 | Salt stress | [9] |
DST | Salt stress | [10] |
GhZFP1 | Salt stress | [11] |
SIZF3 | Salt stress | [12, 13] |
ZFP179 | Salt stress | [14] |
ZjZFN1 | Salt and cold stress | [15] |
TaZNF | Salt stress | [16] |
SICZFP1 | Salt and cold stress | [17] |
TaDi19A | Salt osmotic and cold stress | [18] |
AtDi19-3 | Salt and drought stress | [19] |
AZF2 STZ | Salt, cold and drought stress | [20] |
GsZFP1 | Cold and drought stress | [21] |
ZFP245 | Cold and drought stress | [22] |
GbZF1 | Cold stress | [23] |
PeSTZ1 | Cold and oxidative stress | [24] |
SCOF-1 | Cold stress | [25] |
OsCTZFP8 | Cold stress | [26] |
ZAT12 ZAT7 | Oxidative stress | [27] [28] |
ZFP36 | Oxidative stress | [29] |
GsZFP1 | Cold stress | [21] |
ZAT18 | Oxidative and drought stress | [30] |
OsMSR15 | Drought stress | [31] |
VTA2 | Oxidative and fungal stress | [32] |
MtSTOP | pH and aluminum stress | [33] |
ART1 | Aluminum stress | [34] |
2. Salinity stress and Cys2His2 zinc finger
One of the stress factors is salt. Plants are affected with development and yield from salt stress. Transgenic plant studies in combating salt stress have become one of the most important issues of our century and ZnF proteins attract a lot of attention in this context. Salt application has induced expression of AtSIZ1. The germination energy, index and rate, cotyledon growth rate and root length were found to be importantly higher than wild-type in lines where AtSIZ1 was over-expressed under various stress applications at the germination stage. However, these indicators decreased significantly in AtSIZ1 mutants. Higher proline, potassium and soluble sugar, lower sodium, malondialdehyde, sodium/potassium ratios were observed in the lines where over-expression occurred in the mature seedling stage compared to the wild-type. Stress-related marker genes such as AtGSTU5, AtP5CS1, COR15A, RD29A, RD29B and SOS1 have been found to be over-expressed in lines with an excessive expression than those of wild-type and mutant under salt application. Due to the results AtSIZ1 functions in maintaining both ionic homeostasis and osmotic balance to improve salt tolerance in
3. Cold stress and C2H2 zinc finger proteins
GsZFP1 was found to be stimulated by ABA (100 μM), cold (4°C) and salt (200 mM sodium chloride) in leaves and by ABA (100 μM), cold (4°C) and drought (30% PEG 6000) in root. It was found that over-expression of GsZFP1 in transgenic
4. Oxidative stress and C2H2 zinc finger proteins
Cytosolic Apx1, ascorbate peroxidase 1, is an important H2O2-removing enzyme in plants. Both WRKY transcription factor (WRKY25) and two ZnF proteins (ZAT12 and ZAT7) expressions have increased in Apx1 gene suppressed plants that grown under the controlled conditions. When cells were exposed to oxidative stress, heat shock, and injury, the WRKY25, ZAT7 and ZAT12 expressions increased together. However, light and osmotic stresses did not increase them. Transgenic plants expressing ZAT7 and ZAT12 were able to tolerate oxidative stress. WRKY25, ZAT7 or ZAT12 expression in transgenic plants did not increase Apx1 expression under controlled conditions. Plants without ZAT12 could not increase Apx1, WRKY25 and ZAT7 expressions in response to H2O2, so that plants without ZAT12 have become more sensitive to H2O2 applications than normal plants. It has been revealed that ZAT12 is an important component of oxidative stress signal transmission in
5. Drought stress and C2H2 zinc finger proteins
Over-expression of ZAT18 has increased drought tolerance in
6. Other stress and C2H2 zinc finger proteins
VTA2 contains the ZF-Cys2His2 proteins. It controls H2O2 detoxification and host plant root infection. And it is an important regulator of fungal pathogenesis [35]. StZFP2 is a Q-type C2H2 zinc finger transcription factor induced by injury and invasion. Previous studies show that Q-type C2H2 TFs are involved in responding to stress and may be protective against drought, salinity, or pathogenic infections when overexpressed. The increase in StPIN2, a classic marker for insect defense in potatoes, was consistent with decreases in larval weight gain [36]. MtSTOP is also a C2H2 zinc finger protein and regulates Medicago’s response to H+ and Al3+ toxicity. MtSTOP is expressed in root, stem, nodule and other tissues. MtSTOP is upregulated with acidic pH and Al3+ stress or a combination of both. Growth or morphology in mtSTOP mutants did not change under normal conditions; however, mutant seedlings are characterized by significantly reduced root elongation and are sensitive to low pH (pH 4.3) and Al3+ stress. Compared to its control, more Al accumulated in the mutant roots and citric acid secreted from the mutant roots was significantly lower in both normal and Al stress conditions. This indicates that MtSTOP hair roots synthesize more citric and malic acids [37]. Regarding aluminum, Rice (
Financial support
This work was supported by the Selcuk University and Dicle University.
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