Genome Wide Binding Site Analysis Reveals Transcriptional Coactivation of Cytokinin-Responsive Genes by DELLA Proteins

[EN] The ability of plants to provide a plastic response to environmental cues relies on the connectivity between signaling pathways. DELLA proteins act as hubs that relay environmental information to the multiple transcriptional circuits that control growth and development through physical interaction with transcription factors from different families. We have analyzed the presence of one DELLA protein at the Arabidopsis genome by chromatin immunoprecipitation coupled to large-scale sequencing and we find that it binds at the promoters of multiple genes. Enrichment analysis shows a strong preference for cis elements recognized by specific transcription factor families. In particular, we demonstrate that DELLA proteins are recruited by type-B ARABIDOPSIS RESPONSE REGULATORS (ARR) to the promoters of cytokinin-regulated genes, where they act as transcriptional co-activators. The biological relevance of this mechanism is underpinned by the necessity of simultaneous presence of DELLAs and ARRs to restrict root meristem growth and to promote photomorphogenesis.This work was funded by grants BIO2007-60923 and BIO2010-15071 from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Innovation (MAB); grant ERC-2011-StG_20101109 from the European Research Council (JUL); grants BB/J/00426X/1 and BB/E022618/1 from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (SGT); the Professorial Research Fellowship award BB/G023972/1 from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (KH and MJB); and grant FP7-311929 from the European Union (RPB). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Marín-De La Rosa, NA.; Pfeiffer, A.; Hill, K.; Locascio ., AAM.; Bhalerao, R.; Miskolczi, P.; Grønlund, A.... (2015). Genome Wide Binding Site Analysis Reveals Transcriptional Coactivation of Cytokinin-Responsive Genes by DELLA Proteins. PLoS Genetics. 11(7):1-20. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1005337S12011