A. thaliana TRANSPARENT TESTA 1 is involved in seed coat development and defines the WIP subfamily of plant zinc finger proteins

Seeds of the Arabidopsis thaliana transparent testa 1 mutant (tt1) appear yellow, due to the lack of condensed tannin pigments in the seed coat. The TT1 gene was isolated by reverse genetics using an En-1 transposon mutagenized A. thaliana population. TT1 gene expression was detected in developing o...

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Published inGenes & development Vol. 16; no. 1; pp. 138 - 149
Main Authors Sagasser, Martin, Lu, Gui-Hua, Hahlbrock, Klaus, Weisshaar, Bernd
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press 01.01.2002
Subjects
Amino Acid Sequence
Arabidopsis - embryology
Arabidopsis - physiology
Arabidopsis Proteins
Arabidopsis thaliana
Cloning, Molecular
Flavonoids - biosynthesis
Molecular Sequence Data
Mutation
Plant Proteins - genetics
Plant Proteins - physiology
Research Paper
Seeds - physiology
Sequence Alignment
TRANSPARENT TESTA 1 gene
WIP protein
Zinc Fingers
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Summary:Seeds of the Arabidopsis thaliana transparent testa 1 mutant (tt1) appear yellow, due to the lack of condensed tannin pigments in the seed coat. The TT1 gene was isolated by reverse genetics using an En-1 transposon mutagenized A. thaliana population. TT1 gene expression was detected in developing ovules and young seeds only, and the gene was shown to encode a nuclear protein. Mutant seeds displayed altered morphology of the seed endothelium in which brown tannin pigments accumulate in wild-type plants, indicating that TT1 is involved in the differentiation of this cell layer. When overexpressed in transgenic A. thaliana plants, TT1 caused aberrant development and organ morphology. The protein contains a novel combination of two TFIIIA-type zinc finger motifs. Closely related motifs were detected in a number of putative proteins deduced from plant genomic and EST sequences. The new protein domain containing this type of zinc finger motifs was designated WIP, according to three strictly conserved amino acid residues. Our data indicate the existence of a small gene family in A. thaliana which is defined by the occurrence of the WIP domain. WIP genes may play important roles in regulating developmental processes, including the control of endothelium differentiation.
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ISSN:0890-9369
1549-5477
DOI:10.1101/gad.212702