PEI1, an Embryo-Specific Zinc Finger Protein Gene Required for Heart-Stage Embryo Formation in Arabidopsis

Abstract

We used virtual subtraction, a new gene isolation strategy, to isolate several genes of interest that are expressed in Arabidopsis embryos. These genes have demonstrated biological properties or have the potential to be involved in important biological processes. One gene isolated by virtual subtraction is PEI. It encodes a protein containing a Cys3His zinc finger domain associated with a number of animal and fungal transcription factors. In situ hybridization results showed that PEI1 is expressed throughout the embryo from globular to late cotyledon stage. Transgenic Arabidopsis plants expressing a PEI1 antisense gene produced white seeds in which embryo development did not progress through heart stage. Aberrant embryos failed to form cotyledons, but the embryonic root appeared to be normal. Aberrant embryos did not turn green, and the expression of genes involved in photomorphogenesis was drastically attenuated. In culture, aberrant embryos did not form true leaves, but root formation was apparently normal. These results suggest that PEI1 is an embryo-specific transcription factor that plays an important role during Arabidopsis embryogenesis, functioning primarily in the apical domain of the embryo.

The Arabidopsis CALLOSE DEFECTIVE MICROSPORE1 Gene Is Required for Male Fertility through Regulating Callose Metabolism during Microsporogenesis

“…CDM1 encodes a protein with TZF domains, each containing three Cys and one His that coordinate a zinc atom (Lai et al, 2000); this type of zinc finger protein is involved in various developmental processes and environmental responses in plants (Li and Thomas, 1998;Sun et al, 2007;Kim et al, 2008;Wang et al, 2008;Lin et al, 2011). TZF proteins were initially identified in animals with two highly similar C-X8-C-X5-C-X3-H motifs (X represents variable amino acids) that are separated by 18 amino acids between the carboxyl terminal H of the first zinc finger and the amino terminal C of the second zinc finger (Blackshear et al, 2005).…”

The ArabidopsisSomatic Embryogenesis Receptor Kinase 1Gene Is Expressed in Developing Ovules and Embryos and Enhances Embryogenic Competence in Culture

“…A67815). A full-length SERK1 cDNA was isolated from an Arabidopsis cDNA library made from flower buds and opened flowers (Li and Thomas, 1998). This cDNA consisted of an open reading frame of 1,875 nucleotides and 194 nucleotides of 5Ј-untranslated region (GenBank accession no.…”

“…Phages (1.5 ϫ 10 6 ) from an amplified Lambda-ZAPII (Stratagene) cDNA library made from flower buds and open flowers (Li and Thomas, 1998) were plated according to the manufacturer's protocol. The plaques were hybridized with a 4-kb XbaI fragment of genomic AtSERK1 gene containing most of the coding sequence, and five positives were recovered and characterized by end sequencing.…”

A CCCH-Type Zinc Finger Nucleic Acid-Binding Protein Quantitatively Confers Resistance against Rice Bacterial Blight Disease

“…Most of the characterized CCCH-type zinc finger proteins are associated with RNA metabolism by binding to the target mRNA (Cheng et al, 2003;Delaney et al, 2006;Lai et al, 2006;Hurt et al, 2009), and only two, Arabidopsis PEI1 and rice OsLIC, are suggested to transcriptionally regulate gene expression by binding to DNA (Li and Thomas, 1998;Wang et al, 2008b). In addition, OsLIC harbors an EELR-type activation domain for regulating gene transcription in yeast (Wang et al, 2008b).…”

“…Arabidopsis PEI1, required for embryo development, can bind to DNA and functions as an embryo-specific transcription factor (Li and Thomas, 1998). Rice OsLIC (for Oryza sativa LEAF AND TILLER ANGLE INCREASED), containing only one CCCHtype zinc finger motif, can bind to both DNA and RNA and putatively controls plant architecture as a transcription activator (Wang et al, 2008b).…”