NDP kinases (NDPKs) are multifunctional proteins that regulate a variety of eukaryotic cellular activities, including cell proliferation, development, and differentiation. However, much less is known about the functional significance of NDPKs in plants. We show here that NDPK is associated with H 2O2-mediated mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling in plants. H 2O2 stress strongly induces the expression of the NDPK2 gene in Arabidopsis thaliana (AtNDPK2). Proteins from transgenic plants overexpressing AtNDPK2 showed high levels of autophosphorylation and NDPK activity, and they have lower levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) than wild-type plants. Mutants lacking AtNDPK2 had higher levels of ROS than wild type. H2O2 treatment induced the phosphorylation of two endogenous proteins whose molecular weights suggested they are AtMPK3 and AtMPK6, two H2O2-activated A. thaliana mitogenactivated protein kinases. In the absence of H2O2 treatment, phosphorylation of these proteins was slightly elevated in plants overexpressing AtNDPK2 but markedly decreased in the AtNDPK2 deletion mutant. Yeast two-hybrid and in vitro protein pull-down assays revealed that AtNDPK2 specifically interacts with AtMPK3 and AtMPK6. Furthermore, AtNDPK2 also enhances the myelin basic protein phosphorylation activity of AtMPK3 in vitro. Finally, constitutive overexpression of AtNDPK2 in Arabidopsis plants conferred an enhanced tolerance to multiple environmental stresses that elicit ROS accumulation in situ. Thus, AtNDPK2 appears to play a previously uncharacterized regulatory role in H2O2-mediated MAPK signaling in plants.

SUMMARYBrassinosteroids (BRs) are growth-promoting steroidal hormones. Despite the importance of BRs in plant biology, the signal that initiates BR biosynthesis remains unknown. Among the enzymes involved in BR biosynthesis in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), DWARF4 catalyzes the rate-determining step. Through both the histochemical analysis of DWF4pro:GUS plants and the direct measurement of endogenous BR content, we discovered that BR biosynthesis is stimulated by auxin. When DWF4pro:GUS was subjected to auxin dose-response tests and a time-course analysis, GUS activity started to increase at an auxin concentration of 10 nM, rising noticeably after 1 h of auxin treatment. In addition, the analysis of the DWF4pro:GUS line in BR-and auxin-mutant backgrounds revealed that the induction by auxin requires auxinsignaling pathways but not BRs, which implies that auxin signaling directly controls BR biosynthesis. Furthermore, chromatin immunoprecipitation assays confirmed that auxin inhibits the binding of the transcriptional repressor, BZR1, to the DWF4 promoter. A microarray analysis that was designed to examine the transcriptomes after treatment with auxin alone or auxin plus brassinazole (a BR biosynthetic inhibitor) revealed that genes previously characterized as being auxin responsive are not properly regulated when BR biosynthesis is disrupted by brassinazole. Therefore, our results support the idea that auxin regulates BR biosynthesis, and that auxin thus relies on synthesized BRs for some of its growth-promoting effects in Arabidopsis.