Transcriptional networks governing plant metabolism

Abstract

a b s t r a c tEfficiently obtaining and utilizing energy and elements is critical for an organism to maximize its fitness. Optimizing these processes requires precise regulation and coordination of an organism's metabolic networks in response to diverse environmental conditions and developmental stages. Metabolic regulation is often considered to largely occur by allosteric feedback where the metabolites directly influence the enzymes function. Recent work is showing that there is also an extensive role for transcriptional control of the enzyme encoding genes to construct the metabolic network in response to developmental and environmental stimuli. Within this review, we go through the extensive evidence of how transcription can coordinate the necessary metabolic shifts required to coordinate a plants metabolism with its development and environment. Additionally, we discuss evidence that the metabolites not only feed-back regulate the enzymes but also the upstream transcriptional processes, possibly to stabilize the system.

Network-Guided Discovery of Extensive Epistasis between Transcription Factors Involved in Aliphatic Glucosinolate Biosynthesis

“…This pathway had previously been identified as having master regulators of GLS biosynthesis: MYB28 and MYB29 (Hirai et al, 2007;Traka et al, 2013). In contrast, we previously identified a large collection of TFs that had much more modest impacts on the pathway via binding distinct subsets of the promoters in the pathway (Li et al, 2014a;Gaudinier et al, 2015). Within this network, the vast majority of TFs showed pairwise epistasis.…”

“…The size of networks is of critical importance for adaptive traits because as genetic networks increase in size and interconnectivity, the concept of a single master regulator at the beginning point of a specific regulatory network is less essential. Additionally, as gene membership increases, there is a concurrent increase in the potential for epistasis between these genes (Mackay, 2014;Gaudinier et al, 2015). In this context, we are defining epistasis as any nonadditive interaction between genotypes at two or more loci influencing a trait.…”

Evolutionary correlations in flavonoid production across flowers and leaves in the Iochrominae (Solanaceae)

“…The changes in floral biochemistry did not result in strongly correlated variation in leaf biochemistry, a pattern that may reflect independent regulation of the pathway in these tissues. Nonetheless, flavonoid production is strongly influenced by abiotic and biotic factors, such as UV stress and herbivory (Gaudinier et al, 2015;Strauss and Whittall, 2006). Thus, additional exploration of floral and leaf composition under multiple growing conditions would clarify the generality of this finding.…”

Heterodera schachtii infection affects nitrogen metabolism in Arabidopsis thaliana

“…The metabolic regulation by allosteric feedback, where the metabolites directly impact on the activity of enzymes, is one of the more commonly known mechanisms. However, the various transcription factors governing and shaping the potential enzymatic network cannot be overlooked (Gaudinier et al , ). Long hypocotyle 5 ( HY5 ) is a key nuclear basic‐region leucine zipper (bZIP) type transcription factor in Arabidopsis thaliana .…”