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Specific interaction of the tomato bZIP transcription factor VSF-1 with a non-palindromic DNA sequence that controls vascular gene expression

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Abstract

The grp1.8 gene of French bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) is specifically expressed in vascular tissue and encodes a glycine-rich structural protein (GRP1.8) of the cell wall. Earlier promoter analysis had shown that a 28 bp fragment of the grp1.8 promoter (vs-1) confers vascular expression to heterologous minimal promoters and is bound by the tomato bZIP transcription factor VSF-1. Here, we analysed the interaction of VSF-1 with fragments of the vs-1 element and studied the molecular basis of specific binding both in the DNA sequence of the promoter element as well as in the protein. The minimal binding site of VSF-1 is a 9 bp, non-palindromic sequence with two non-identical half-sites and a central nucleotide which separates them. The amino acid sequence of the VSF-1 DNA-binding basic domain has a Lys at position -10 instead of a conserved Arg found in the other bZIP factors isolated so far. This lysine was found to be required for specific recognition of the non-palindromic binding site: a mutant VSF-1 with a Lys-to-Arg substitution at position -10 bound with higher affinity to a palindromic sequence than the wild-type protein. The minimal binding site of VSF-1 was sufficient and necessary to confer vascular-specific expression to a heterologous promoter in vivo. The vsf-1 promoter also showed vascular-specific expression in transgenic tobacco. The close similarity of these expression patterns suggests that VSF-1 is specifically involved in vascular expression of the grp1.8 gene in plants.

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Author notes

  1. Christoph Ringli

    Present address: Department of Agriculture, Plant Gene Expression Center, University of California/U.S, 800 Buchanan St., Albany, CA, 94710, USA

  2. Beat Keller

    Present address: Institute of Plant Biology, University of Zürich, Zollikerstrasse 107, 8008, Zürich, Switzerland

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Resistance and Quality Breeding, Swiss Federal Research Station for Agroecology and Agriculture, Reckenholzstrasse 191, 8046, Zürich, Switzerland; Present addresses

    Christoph Ringli & Beat Keller

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  1. Christoph Ringli
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  2. Beat Keller
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Ringli, C., Keller, B. Specific interaction of the tomato bZIP transcription factor VSF-1 with a non-palindromic DNA sequence that controls vascular gene expression. Plant Mol Biol 37, 977–988 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006030007333

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