HD2A and HD2C co-regulate drought stress response by modulating stomatal closure and root growth in Arabidopsis.

Histone deacetylase 2 (HD2) is a unique family of histone deacetylases (HDACs) in plants. Despite evidence that certain HD2 family HDACs play an important role in plant growth and stress response, the coordination of HD2s in these processes remains largely unknown. We found that HD2-type, HD2A and HD2C coordinate to play a role in drought stress response in Arabidopsis. We showed that the hd2a.hd2c double mutant (Mac16) exhibit decreased drought survival and increased water loss as compared to the single mutants, hd2a and hd2c. Gene expression analysis showed that the ABI1 and ABI2 genes were upregulated and SLAC1 was downregulated which led to the modified stomatal functioning in the Mac16 as compared to the single mutants. Overexpression of HD2A and HD2C showed enhanced drought survival and decreased water loss. We also showed that the GA2ox1 and GA2ox2 genes, which are involved in the catabolism of bioactive gibberellic acids, were upregulated in the Mac16 as compared to the single mutants, which led to a decreased root growth in the Mac16. Furthermore, we showed that HD2A and HD2C can physically interact and increased genome-wide H3K9 acetylation was observed in the Mac16, compared to the single mutants. Overall, our investigation revealed that HD2A and HD2C coordinate to play a cumulative role in drought stress response and root growth in Arabidopsis.

HD2-type histone deacetylases: unique regulators of plant development and stress responses.

Plants have developed sophisticated and complex epigenetic regulation-based mechanisms to maintain stable growth and development under diverse environmental conditions. Histone deacetylases (HDACs) are important epigenetic regulators in eukaryotes that are involved in the deacetylation of lysine residues of histone H3 and H4 proteins. Plants have developed a unique HDAC family, HD2, in addition to the RPD3 and Sir2 families, which are also present in other eukaryotes. HD2s are well conserved plant-specific HDACs, which were first identified as nucleolar phosphoproteins in maize. The HD2 family plays important roles not only in fundamental developmental processes, including seed germination, root and leaf development, floral transition, and seed development but also in regulating plant responses to biotic and abiotic stresses. Some of the HD2 members coordinate with each other to function. The HD2 family proteins also show functional association with RPD3-type HDACs and other transcription factors as a part of repression complexes in gene regulatory networks involved in environmental stress responses. This review aims to analyse and summarise recent research progress in the HD2 family, and to describe their role in plant growth and development and in response to different environmental stresses.