Heat shock factors (HSFs) are principal regulators of plant responses to several abiotic stresses. Here, we show that estradioldependent induction of HSFA4A confers enhanced tolerance to salt and oxidative agents, whereas inactivation of HSFA4A results in hypersensitivity to salt stress in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). Estradiol induction of HSFA4A in transgenic plants decreases, while the knockout hsfa4a mutation elevates hydrogen peroxide accumulation and lipid peroxidation. Overexpression of HSFA4A alters the transcription of a large set of genes regulated by oxidative stress. In yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) two-hybrid and bimolecular fluorescence complementation assays, HSFA4A shows homomeric interaction, which is reduced by alanine replacement of three conserved cysteine residues. HSFA4A interacts with mitogen-activated protein kinases MPK3 and MPK6 in yeast and plant cells. MPK3 and MPK6 phosphorylate HSFA4A in vitro on three distinct sites, serine-309 being the major phosphorylation site. Activation of the MPK3 and MPK6 mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway led to the transcriptional activation of the HEAT SHOCK PROTEIN17.6A gene. In agreement that mutation of serine-309 to alanine strongly diminished phosphorylation of HSFA4A, it also strongly reduced the transcriptional activation of HEAT SHOCK PROTEIN17.6A. These data suggest that HSFA4A is a substrate of the MPK3/MPK6 signaling and that it regulates stress responses in Arabidopsis.

Summary Mitogen‐activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascades have important functions in plant stress responses and development and are key players in reactive oxygen species (ROS) signalling and in innate immunity. In Arabidopsis, the transmission of ROS and pathogen signalling by MAPKs involves the coordinated activation of MPK6 and MPK3; however, the specificity of their negative regulation by phosphatases is not fully known. Here, we present genetic analyses showing that MAPK phosphatase 2 (MKP2) regulates oxidative stress and pathogen defence responses and functionally interacts with MPK3 and MPK6. We show that plants lacking a functional MKP2 gene exhibit delayed wilting symptoms in response to Ralstonia solanacearum and, by contrast, acceleration of disease progression during Botrytis cinerea infection, suggesting that this phosphatase plays differential functions in biotrophic versus necrotrophic pathogen‐induced responses. MKP2 function appears to be linked to MPK3 and MPK6 regulation, as indicated by BiFC experiments showing that MKP2 associates with MPK3 and MPK6 in vivo and that in response to fungal elicitors MKP2 exerts differential affinity versus both kinases. We also found that MKP2 interacts with MPK6 in HR‐like responses triggered by fungal elicitors, suggesting that MPK3 and MPK6 are subject to differential regulation by MKP2 in this process. We propose that MKP2 is a key regulator of MPK3 and MPK6 networks controlling both abiotic and specific pathogen responses in plants.

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SnRK2 kinases, PP2C phosphatases and the PYR/PYL/RCAR receptors constitute the core abscisic acid (ABA) signaling module that is thought to contain all of the intrinsic properties to self-regulate the hormone signal output. Here we identify Casein Kinase (CK)2 as a novel negative regulator of SnRK2. CK2 phosphorylates a cluster of conserved serines at the ABA box of SnRK2, increasing its binding to PP2C and triggering protein degradation. Consequently, CK2 action has implications on SnRK2 protein levels, as well as kinase activity and its response to abiotic stimuli.

Understanding abiotic stress responses is one of the most important issues in plant research nowadays. Abiotic stress, including excess light, can promote the onset of oxidative stress through the accumulation of reactive oxygen species. Oxidative stress also arises when in vitro propagated plants are exposed to high light upon transfer to ex vitro. To determine whether the underlying pathways activated at the transfer of in vitro grapevine to ex vitro conditions reflect the processes occurring upon light stress, we used Vitis vinifera Affymetrix GeneChip (VvGA) and a custom array of genes responsive to light stress (LSCA) detected by real-time reverse transcriptase PCR (qRT-PCR). When gene-expression profiles were compared, 'protein metabolism and modification', 'signaling', and 'anti-oxidative' genes were more represented in LSCA, while, in VvGA, 'cell wall metabolism' and 'secondary metabolism' were the categories in which gene expression varied more significantly. The above functional categories confirm previous studies involving other types of abiotic stresses, enhancing the common attributes of abiotic stress defense pathways. The LSCA analysis of our experimental system detected strong response of heat shock genes, particularly the protein rescuing mechanism involving the cooperation of two ATP-dependent chaperone systems, Hsp100 and Hsp70, which showed an unusually late response during the recovery period, of extreme relevance to remove non-functional, potentially harmful polypeptides arising from misfolding, denaturation, or aggregation brought about by stress. The success of LSCA also proves the feasibility of a custom-made qRT-PCR approach, particularly for species for which no GeneChip is available and for researchers dealing with a specific and focused problem.