Wrinkled1, a ubiquitous regulator in oil accumulating tissues from Arabidopsis embryos to oil palm mesocarp

Wei Ma; Que Kong; Vincent Arondel; Aruna Kilaru; Philip D Bates; Nicholas A Thrower; Christoph Benning; John B Ohlrogge

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0068887

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Wrinkled1, a ubiquitous regulator in oil accumulating tissues from Arabidopsis embryos to oil palm mesocarp

Journal article

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Wrinkled1, a ubiquitous regulator in oil accumulating tissues from Arabidopsis embryos to oil palm mesocarp

Wei Ma, Que Kong, Vincent Arondel, Aruna Kilaru, Philip D Bates, Nicholas A Thrower, Christoph Benning and John B Ohlrogge

PloS one, Vol.8(7), pp.e68887-e68887

2013

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0068887

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https://hdl.handle.net/2376/107484

PMCID: PMC3724841

PMID: 23922666

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Abstract

Amino Acid Sequence

Seeds - metabolism

Transcription Factors - chemistry

Seeds - ultrastructure

Alternative Splicing - genetics

Germination

Arabidopsis - ultrastructure

Molecular Sequence Data

Arabidopsis - embryology

Exons - genetics

Genetic Complementation Test

Arabidopsis - metabolism

Arabidopsis Proteins - metabolism

Transcription Factors - metabolism

Palm Oil

Phenotype

Sequence Alignment

Arabidopsis Proteins - chemistry

Plants, Genetically Modified

Plant Oils - metabolism

Fatty Acids - metabolism

Arecaceae - metabolism

Seedlings - metabolism

Wrinkled1 (AtWRI1) is a key transcription factor in the regulation of plant oil synthesis in seed and non-seed tissues. The structural features of WRI1 important for its function are not well understood. Comparison of WRI1 orthologs across many diverse plant species revealed a conserved 9 bp exon encoding the amino acids "VYL". Site-directed mutagenesis of amino acids within the 'VYL' exon of AtWRI1 failed to restore the full oil content of wri1-1 seeds, providing direct evidence for an essential role of this small exon in AtWRI1 function. Arabidopsis WRI1 is predicted to have three alternative splice forms. To understand expression of these splice forms we performed RNASeq of Arabidopsis developing seeds and queried other EST and RNASeq databases from several tissues and plant species. In all cases, only one splice form was detected and VYL was observed in transcripts of all WRI1 orthologs investigated. We also characterized a phylogenetically distant WRI1 ortholog (EgWRI1) as an example of a non-seed isoform that is highly expressed in the mesocarp tissue of oil palm. The C-terminal region of EgWRI1 is over 90 amino acids shorter than AtWRI1 and has surprisingly low sequence conservation. Nevertheless, the EgWRI1 protein can restore multiple phenotypes of the Arabidopsis wri1-1 loss-of-function mutant, including reduced seed oil, the "wrinkled" seed coat, reduced seed germination, and impaired seedling establishment. Taken together, this study provides an example of combining phylogenetic analysis with mutagenesis, deep-sequencing technology and computational analysis to examine key elements of the structure and function of the WRI1 plant transcription factor.

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Title: Wrinkled1, a ubiquitous regulator in oil accumulating tissues from Arabidopsis embryos to oil palm mesocarp
Creators: Wei Ma - Department of Plant Biology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, United States of America. mawei@msu.edu
Que Kong
Vincent Arondel
Aruna Kilaru
Philip D Bates
Nicholas A Thrower
Christoph Benning
John B Ohlrogge
Publication Details: PloS one, Vol.8(7), pp.e68887-e68887
Academic Unit: Biological Chemistry, Institute of
Publisher: United States
Identifiers: 99900546703601842
Language: English
Resource Type: Journal article