Cold acclimation in Arabidopsis thaliana triggers a significant transcriptional reprogramming altering the expression patterns of thousands of cold-responsive(COR) genes. Essential to this process is the C-repeat bind...Cold acclimation in Arabidopsis thaliana triggers a significant transcriptional reprogramming altering the expression patterns of thousands of cold-responsive(COR) genes. Essential to this process is the C-repeat binding factor(CBF)-dependent pathway, involving the activity of AP2/ERF(APETALA2/ethylene-responsive factor)-type CBF transcription factors required for plant cold acclimation. In this study, we performed chromatin immunoprecipitation assays followed by deep sequencing(ChIP-seq) to determine the genomewide binding sites of the CBF transcription factors. Cold-induced CBF proteins specifically bind to the conserved C-repeat(CRT)/dehydrationresponsive elements(CRT/DRE;G/ACCGAC) of their target genes. A Gene Ontology enrichment analysis showed that 1,012 genes are targeted by all three CBFs. Combined with a transcriptional analysis of the cbf1,2,3 triple mutant, we define 146 CBF regulons as direct CBF targets. In addition, the CBF-target genes are significantly enriched in functions associated with hormone, light,and circadian rhythm signaling, suggesting that the CBFs act as key integrators of endogenous and external environmental cues. Our findings not only define the genome-wide binding patterns of the CBFs during the early cold response, but also provide insights into the role of the CBFs in regulating multiple biological processes of plants.展开更多
基金This work was supported by the National Natural Sciences Foundation of China(31872658,32022008,31921001)。
文摘Cold acclimation in Arabidopsis thaliana triggers a significant transcriptional reprogramming altering the expression patterns of thousands of cold-responsive(COR) genes. Essential to this process is the C-repeat binding factor(CBF)-dependent pathway, involving the activity of AP2/ERF(APETALA2/ethylene-responsive factor)-type CBF transcription factors required for plant cold acclimation. In this study, we performed chromatin immunoprecipitation assays followed by deep sequencing(ChIP-seq) to determine the genomewide binding sites of the CBF transcription factors. Cold-induced CBF proteins specifically bind to the conserved C-repeat(CRT)/dehydrationresponsive elements(CRT/DRE;G/ACCGAC) of their target genes. A Gene Ontology enrichment analysis showed that 1,012 genes are targeted by all three CBFs. Combined with a transcriptional analysis of the cbf1,2,3 triple mutant, we define 146 CBF regulons as direct CBF targets. In addition, the CBF-target genes are significantly enriched in functions associated with hormone, light,and circadian rhythm signaling, suggesting that the CBFs act as key integrators of endogenous and external environmental cues. Our findings not only define the genome-wide binding patterns of the CBFs during the early cold response, but also provide insights into the role of the CBFs in regulating multiple biological processes of plants.