Regulating the regulators: The control of transcription factors in plant defense signaling

Danny W K Ng*, Jayami K. Abeysinghe, Maedeh Kamali

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

190 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Being sessile, plants rely on intricate signaling pathways to mount an efficient defense against external threats while maintaining the cost balance for growth. Transcription factors (TFs) form a repertoire of master regulators in controlling various processes of plant development and responses against external stimuli. There are about 58 families of TFs in plants and among them, six major TF families (AP2/ERF (APETALA2/ethylene responsive factor), bHLH (basic helix-loop-helix), MYB (myeloblastosis related), NAC (no apical meristem (NAM), Arabidopsis transcription activation factor (ATAF1/2), and cup-shaped cotyledon (CUC2)), WRKY, and bZIP (basic leucine zipper)) are found to be involved in biotic and abiotic stress responses. As master regulators of plant defense, the expression and activities of these TFs are subjected to various transcriptional and post-transcriptional controls, as well as post-translational modifications. Many excellent reviews have discussed the importance of these TFs families in mediating their downstream target signaling pathways in plant defense. In this review, we summarize the molecular regulatory mechanisms determining the expression and activities of these master regulators themselves, providing insights for studying their variation and regulation in crop wild relatives (CWR). With the advance of genome sequencing and the growing collection of re-sequencing data of CWR, now is the time to re-examine and discover CWR for the lost or alternative alleles of TFs. Such approach will facilitate molecular breeding and genetic improvement of domesticated crops, especially in stress tolerance and defense responses, with the aim to address the growing concern of climate change and its impact on agriculture crop production.

Original languageEnglish
Article number3737
Number of pages18
JournalInternational Journal of Molecular Sciences
Volume19
Issue number12
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2018

Scopus Subject Areas

  • Catalysis
  • Molecular Biology
  • Spectroscopy
  • Computer Science Applications
  • Physical and Theoretical Chemistry
  • Organic Chemistry
  • Inorganic Chemistry

User-Defined Keywords

  • defense
  • transcription factor regulations
  • AP2/ERF
  • bHLH
  • bZIP
  • MYB
  • NAC
  • WRKY

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