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UVR8 interacts with WRKY36 to regulate HY5 transcription and hypocotyl elongation in Arabidopsis

Nature Plants volume 4, pages 98–107 (2018)Cite this article

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Abstract

UV RESISTANCE LOCUS 8 (UVR8) is an ultraviolet-B (UVB) radiation photoreceptor that mediates light responses in plants. How plant UVR8 acts in response to UVB light is not well understood. Here, we report the identification and characterization of the Arabidopsis WRKY DNA-BINDING PROTEIN 36 (WRKY36) protein. WRKY36 interacts with UVR8 in yeast and Arabidopsis cells and it promotes hypocotyl elongation by inhibiting HY5 transcription. Inhibition of hypocotyl elongation under UVB requires the inhibition of WRKY36. WRKY36 binds to the W-box motif of the HY5 promoter to inhibit its transcription, while nuclear localized UVR8 directly interacts with WRKY36 to inhibit WRKY36–DNA binding both in vitro and in vivo, leading to the release of inhibition of HY5 transcription. These results indicate that WRKY36 is a negative regulator of HY5 and that UVB represses WRKY36 via UVR8 to promote the transcription of HY5 and photomorphogenesis. The UVR8–WRKY36 interaction in the nucleus represents a novel mechanism of early UVR8 signal transduction in Arabidopsis.

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Fig. 1: UVR8 physically interacts with WRKY36.
Fig. 2: UVB promotes the nuclear accumulation of UVR8 as well as formation of the UVR8–WRKY36 complex.
Fig. 3: WRKY36 is involved in UVB-controlled hypocotyl elongation.
Fig. 4: WRKY36 regulates UVB-controlled hypocotyl elongation downstream of UVR8.
Fig. 5: WRKY36 negatively regulates the expression of HY5 downstream of UVR8.
Fig. 6: UVR8 inhibits the DNA-binding activity of WRKY36.

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Acknowledgements

We thank X. Huang, Y. Shi, R. P. Hellens and Q. Hu for materials and technical assistance. We thank G. A. Gomez for copyediting the manuscript. This work is supported in part by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2017YFA 0503800), National Natural Science Foundation of China (31730009, 31721001, 31670282 and 31670307) and Strategic Priority Research Program ‘Molecular Mechanism of Plant Growth and Development’ (XDPB04).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Key Laboratory of Plant Molecular Genetics, Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China

    Yu Yang, Tong Liang, Libo Zhang, Kai Shao, Xingxing Gu, Ruixin Shang, Nan Shi, Xu Li, Peng Zhang & Hongtao Liu

  2. Shanghai College of Life Science, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China

    Yu Yang, Tong Liang, Kai Shao, Xingxing Gu & Ruixin Shang

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Contributions

Y.Y. and H.L. conceived the project. Y.Y. performed most of the experiments. L.Z., X.G., R.S. and N.S. made some constructs. T.L., X.L. and P.Z. provided materials. K.S. performed some protein expression in E. coli. Y.Y. and H.L. analysed the data and wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Hongtao Liu.

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Yang, Y., Liang, T., Zhang, L. et al. UVR8 interacts with WRKY36 to regulate HY5 transcription and hypocotyl elongation in Arabidopsis. Nature Plants 4, 98–107 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-017-0099-0

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