The molecular mechanism of SPOROCYTELESS/NOZZLE in controlling Arabidopsis ovule development

Ovules are essential for plant reproduction and develop into seeds after fertilization. SPOROCYTELESS/NOZZLE (SPL/NZZ) has been known for more than 15 years as an essential factor for ovule development in Arabidopsis, but the biochemical nature of SPL function has remained unsolved. Here, we demonstrate that SPL functions as an adaptor-like transcriptional repressor. We show that SPL recruits TOPLESS/TOPLESS-RELATED (TPL/TPR) co-repressors to inhibit the CINCINNATA (CIN)-like TEOSINTE BRANCHED1/CYCLOIDEA/PCF (TCP) transcription factors. We reveal that SPL uses its EAR motif at the C-terminal end to recruit TPL/TPRs and its N-terminal part to bind and inhibit the TCPs. We demonstrate that either disruption of TPL/TPRs or overexpression of TCPs partially phenocopies the defects of megasporogenesis in spl. Moreover, disruption of TCPs causes phenotypes that resemble spl-D gain-of-function mutants. These results define the action mechanism for SPL, which along with TPL/TPRs controls ovule development by repressing the activities of key transcription factors. Our findings suggest that a similar gene repression strategy is employed by both plants and fungi to control sporogenesis.

• Publication year

  2014

• Venue

  Cell Research

• Publication date

  2014-11-07

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1038/cr.2014.145PMID 25378179PMCID 4650584
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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