Zinc-finger protein GmZF351 improves both salt and drought stress tolerance in soybean.

Abiotic stress is one of the most important factors reducing soybean yield. It is essential to identify regulatory factors contributing to stress responses. A previous study found that the tandem CCCH zinc-finger protein GmZF351 is an oil level regulator. In this study, we discovered that the GmZF351 gene is induced by stress and that the overexpression of GmZF351 confers stress tolerance to transgenic soybean. GmZF351 directly regulates the expression of GmCIPK9 and GmSnRK, leading to stomata closing, by binding to their promoter regions, which carry two CT(G/C)(T/A)AA elements. Stress induction of GmZF351 is mediated through reduction in the H3K27me3 level at the GmZF351 locus. Two JMJ30-demethylase-like genes, GmJMJ30-1 and GmJMJ30-2, are involved in this demethylation process. Overexpression of GmJMJ30-1/2 in transgenic hairy roots enhances GmZF351 expression mediated by histone demethylation and confers stress tolerance to soybean. Yield-related agronomic traits were evaluated in stable GmZF351-transgenic plants under mild drought stress conditions. Our study reveals a new mode of GmJMJ30-GmZF351 action in stress tolerance, in addition to that of GmZF351 in oil accumulation. Manipulation of the components in this pathway is expected to improve soybean traits and adaptation under unfavorable environments.

A transcriptional regulatory module controls lipid accumulation in soybean.

Soybean (Glycine max) is one of the most important oilseed crops. However, the regulatory mechanism that governs the process of oil accumulation in soybean remains poorly understood. In this study, GmZF392, a tandem CCCH zinc finger (TZF) protein which was identified in our previous RNA-seq analysis of seed-preferred transcription factors, was found to function as a positive regulator of lipid production. GmZF392 promotes seed oil accumulation in both transgenic Arabidopsis and stable transgenic soybean plants by binding to a bipartite cis-element, containing TG- and TA-rich sequences, in promoter regions, activating the expression of genes in the lipid biosynthesis pathway. GmZF392 physically interacts with GmZF351, our previously identified transcriptional regulator of lipid biosynthesis, to synergistically promote downstream gene expression. Both GmZF392 and GmZF351 are further upregulated by GmNFYA, another transcription factor involved in lipid biosynthesis, directly (in the former case) and indirectly (in the latter case). Promoter sequence diversity analysis showed that the GmZF392 promoter may have been selected at the origin of the Glycine genus and further mildly selected during domestication from wild soybeans to cultivated soybeans. Our study reveals a regulatory module containing three transcription factors in the lipid biosynthesis pathway, and manipulation of the module may improve oil production in soybean and other oilseed crops.

Tandem CCCH zinc finger proteins in plant growth, development and stress response.

Cysteine3Histidine (CCCH)-type zinc finger proteins comprise a large family that is well conserved across eukaryotes. Among them, tandem CCCH zinc finger proteins (TZFs) play critical roles in mRNA metabolism in animals and yeast. While there are only three TZF members in humans, a much higher number of TZFs has been found in many plant species. Notably, plant TZFs are over-represented by a class of proteins containing a unique TZF domain preceded by an arginine (R)-rich (RR) motif, hereafter called RR-TZF. Recently, there have been a large number of reports indicating that RR-TZF proteins can localize to processing bodies (P-bodies) and stress granules (SG), two novel cytoplasmic aggregations of messenger ribonucleoprotein complexes (mRNPs), and play critical roles in plant growth, development and stress response, probably via RNA regulation. This review focuses on the classification and most recent development of molecular, cellular and genetic analyses of plant RR-TZF proteins.