ZINCFINGEROFARABIDOPSIS.PDF

ZINC FINGER OF ARABIDOPSIS THALIANA12 (ZAT12) Interacts with FER-LIKE IRON DEFICIENCY-INDUCED TRANSCRIPTION FACTOR (FIT) Linking Iron De?ciency and Oxidative Stress Responses1[OPEN] Cham Thi Tuyet Le2,3, Tzvetina Brumbarova2, Rumen Ivanov, Claudia Stoof, Eva Weber, Julia Mohrbacher, Claudia Fink-Straube, and Petra Bauer* Department of Biosciences-Plant Biology, Saarland University, D–66123 Saarbruecken, Germany (C.T.T., T.B., R.I., E.W., J.M., P.B.); Institute of Botany (T.B., R.I., C.S., P.B.) and Cluster of Excellence on Plant Sciences (P.B.), Heinrich-Heine University, D–40225 Duesseldorf, Germany; and Leibniz Institute for New Materials, D–66123 Saarbruecken, Germany (C.F.-S.) ORCID ID: 0000-0001-8703-8439 (E.W.). Plants grown under iron (Fe)-de?cient conditions induce a set of genes that enhance the ef?ciency of Fe uptake by the roots. In Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), the central regulator of this response is the basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor FER- LIKE IRON DEFICIENCY-INDUCED TRANSCRIPTION FACTOR (FIT). FIT activity is regulated by protein-protein interactions, which also serve to integrate external signals that stimulate and possibly inhibit Fe uptake. In the search of signaling components regulating FIT function, we identi?ed ZINC FINGER OF ARABIDOPSIS THALIANA12 (ZAT12), an abiotic stress-induced transcription factor. ZAT12 interacted with FIT, dependent on the presence of the ethylene-responsive element-binding factor-associated amphiphilic repression motif. ZAT12 protein was found expressed in the root early differentiation zone, where its abundance was modulated in a root layer-speci?c manner. In the absence of ZAT12, FIT expression was upregulated, suggesting a negative effect of ZAT12 on Fe uptake. Consistently, zat12 loss-of-function mutants had higher Fe content than the wild type at suf?cient Fe. We found that under Fe de?ciency, hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) levels were enhanced in a FIT-dependent manner. FIT protein, in turn, wa