Identification of putative plant cold responsive regulatory elements by gene expression profiling and a pattern enumeration algorithm

De Novo Regulatory Motif Discovery Identifies Significant Motifs in Promoters of Five Classes of Plant Dehydrin Genes

Plants accumulate dehydrins in response to osmotic stresses. Dehydrins are divided into five different classes, which are thought to be regulated in different manners. To better understand differences in transcriptional regulation of the five dehydrin classes, de novo motif discovery was performed on 350 dehydrin promoter sequences from a total of 51 plant genomes. Overrepresented motifs were identified in the promoters of five dehydrin classes. The K_n dehydrin promoters contain motifs linked with meristem specific expression, as well as motifs linked with cold/dehydration and abscisic acid response. KS dehydrin promoters contain a motif with a GATA core. SK_n and Y_nSK_n dehydrin promoters contain motifs that match elements connected with cold/dehydration, abscisic acid and light response. Y_nK_n dehydrin promoters contain motifs that match abscisic acid and light response elements, but not cold/dehydration response elements. Conserved promoter motifs are present in the dehydrin classes and across different plant lineages, indicating that dehydrin gene regulation is likely also conserved.

Low-temperature perception leading to gene expression and cold tolerance in higher plants

Plant species exhibit a range of tolerances to low temperatures, and these constitute a major determinant of their geographical distribution and use as crops. When tolerance is insufficient, either chilling or freezing injuries result. A variety of mechanisms are employed to evade the ravages of extreme or sub-optimal temperatures. Many of these involve cold-responsive gene expression and require that the drop in temperature is first sensed by the plant. Despite intensive research over the last 100 yr or longer, we still cannot easily answer the question of how plants sense low temperature. Over recent years, genomic and post-genomic approaches have produced a wealth of information relating to the sequence of events leading from cold perception to appropriate and useful responses. However, there are also crucial and significant gaps in the pathways constructed from these data. We describe the literature pertaining to the current understanding of cold perception, signalling and regulation of low-temperature-responsive gene expression in higher plants, raising some of the key questions that still intrigue plant biologists today and that could be targets for future work. Our review focuses on the control of gene expression in the pathways leading from cold perception to chilling and freezing tolerance.

Downstream of the plant circadian clock: output pathways for the control of physiology and development

The plant circadian clock controls many aspects of growth and development, allowing an individual to adapt its physiology and metabolism in anticipation of diurnal and seasonal environmental changes. Circadian regulation of hormone levels and hormonal signalling modulates many features of development, including daily growth patterns and the breaking of seed dormancy. The clock also plays a role in seasonal day-length perception, allowing plants to optimally time key development transitions, such as reproduction. Moreover, the clock restricts (gates) the sensitivity of a plant's response to environmental cues, such as light and stress, to specific times of the day, ensuring that the plant can distinguish between normal fluctuations and longer-term changes. The central oscillator controls many of these output pathways via rhythmic gene expression, with several of the core clock components encoding transcription factors. Post-transcriptional processes are also likely to make an important contribution to the circadian regulation of output pathways. The plant circadian clock plays a role in regulating fitness, hybrid vigour and numerous stress responses. Thus elucidating the complexities of the circadian output mechanisms and their regulation may provide new avenues for crop enhancement.

Cis-regulatory elements in plant cell signaling

Plant cell signaling pathways are in part dependent on transcriptional regulatory networks comprising circuits of transcription factors (TFs) and regulatory DNA elements that control the expression of target genes. Here, we describe experimental and bioinformatic approaches for identifying potential cis-regulatory elements. We also discuss recent integrative genomics studies aimed at elucidating the functions of cis-regulatory elements in aspects of plant biology, including the circadian clock, interactions with the environment, stress responses, and regulation of growth and development by phytohormones. Finally, we discuss emerging technologies and approaches that offer great potential for accelerating the discovery and functional characterization of cis-elements and interacting TFs--which will help realize the promise of systems biology.

A role for circadian evening elements in cold-regulated gene expression in Arabidopsis

The plant transcriptome is dramatically altered in response to low temperature. The cis-acting DNA regulatory elements and trans-acting factors that regulate the majority of cold-regulated genes are unknown. Previous bioinformatic analysis has indicated that the promoters of cold-induced genes are enriched in the Evening Element (EE), AAAATATCT, a DNA regulatory element that has a role in circadian-regulated gene expression. Here we tested the role of EE and EE-like (EEL) elements in cold-induced expression of two Arabidopsis genes, CONSTANS-like 1 (COL1; At5g54470) and a gene encoding a 27-kDa protein of unknown function that we designated COLD-REGULATED GENE 27 (COR27; At5g42900). Mutational analysis indicated that the EE/EEL elements were required for cold induction of COL1 and COR27, and that their action was amplified through coupling with ABA response element (ABRE)-like (ABREL) motifs. An artificial promoter consisting solely of four EE motifs interspersed with three ABREL motifs was sufficient to impart cold-induced gene expression. Both COL1 and COR27 were found to be regulated by the circadian clock at warm growth temperatures and cold-induction of COR27 was gated by the clock. These results suggest that cold- and clock-regulated gene expression are integrated through regulatory proteins that bind to EE and EEL elements supported by transcription factors acting at ABREL sequences. Bioinformatic analysis indicated that the coupling of EE and EEL motifs with ABREL motifs is highly enriched in cold-induced genes and thus may constitute a DNA regulatory element pair with a significant role in configuring the low-temperature transcriptome.

The DIURNAL project: DIURNAL and circadian expression profiling, model-based pattern matching, and promoter analysis

The DIURNAL project ( http://diurnal.cgrb.oregonstate.edu/ ) provides a graphical interface for mining and viewing diurnal and circadian microarray data for Arabidopsis thaliana, poplar, and rice. The database is searchable and provides access to several user-friendly Web-based data-mining tools with easy-to-understand output. The associated tools include HAYSTACK ( http://haystack.cgrb.oregonstate.edu/ ) and ELEMENT ( http://element.cgrb.oregonstate.edu/ ). HAYSTACK is a model-based pattern-matching algorithm for identifying genes that are coexpressed and potentially coregulated. HAYSTACK can be used to analyze virtually any large-scale microarray data set and provides an alternative method for clustering microarray data from any experimental system by grouping together genes whose expression patterns match the same or similar user-defined patterns. ELEMENT is a Web-based program for identifying potential cis-regulatory elements in the promoters of coregulated genes in Arabidopsis, poplar, and rice. Together, DIURNAL, HAYSTACK, and ELEMENT can be used to facilitate cross-species comparisons among the plant species supported and to accelerate functional genomics efforts in the laboratory.

Construction and functional characteristics of tuber-specific and cold-inducible chimeric promoters in potato

The improvement of processing quality of potato products (fries and chips) demands less accumulation of reducing sugars (glucose and fructose) in cold-stored potato (Solanum tuberosum) tubers. Control of gene expression to achieve this requires promoters with specificity to tubers as well as inducible activity under low temperatures. Here we use overlapping extension PCR to construct two chimeric promoters, pCL and pLC, to control gene expression in a tuber-specific and cold-inducible pattern. This combined different combinations of the LTRE (low-temperature responsive element) from Arabidopsis thaliana cor15a promoter and the TSSR (tuber-specific and sucrose-responsive sequence) from potato class I patatin promoter. The cold-inducible and tuber-specific activities of the chimeric promoters were investigated by quantitative analysis of GUS activity in transgenic potato cultivar E3 plants. The results showed that the cis-elements, LTRE and TSSR, played responsive roles individually or in combination. pCL with the TSSR closer to the TATA-box showed substantially higher promoter activity than pLC with the LTRE closer to the TATA-box at either normal (20 degrees C) or low temperature (2 degrees C), suggesting that the promoter activity was closely associated with the position of the two elements. The chimeric promoter pCL with tuber-specific and cold-inducible features may provide valuable tool for controlling the expression of gene constructs designed to lower the formation of reducing sugars in tubers stored at low temperature and to improve the processing quality of potato products.

The Plasmodium falciparum sexual development transcriptome: a microarray analysis using ontology-based pattern identification

The sexual stages of malarial parasites are essential for the mosquito transmission of the disease and therefore are the focus of transmission-blocking drug and vaccine development. In order to better understand genes important to the sexual development process, the transcriptomes of high-purity stage I-V Plasmodium falciparum gametocytes were comprehensively profiled using a full-genome high-density oligonucleotide microarray. The interpretation of this transcriptional data was aided by applying a novel knowledge-based data-mining algorithm termed ontology-based pattern identification (OPI) using current information regarding known sexual stage genes as a guide. This analysis resulted in the identification of a sexual development cluster containing 246 genes, of which approximately 75% were hypothetical, exhibiting highly-correlated, gametocyte-specific expression patterns. Inspection of the upstream promoter regions of these 246 genes revealed putative cis-regulatory elements for sexual development transcriptional control mechanisms. Furthermore, OPI analysis was extended using current annotations provided by the Gene Ontology Consortium to identify 380 statistically significant clusters containing genes with expression patterns characteristic of various biological processes, cellular components, and molecular functions. Collectively, these results, available as part of a web-accessible OPI database (http://carrier.gnf.org/publications/Gametocyte), shed light on the components of molecular mechanisms underlying parasite sexual development and other areas of malarial parasite biology.

POBO, transcription factor binding site verification with bootstrapping

Transcription factors can either activate or repress target genes by binding onto short nucleotide sequence motifs in the promoter regions of these genes. Here, we present POBO, a promoter bootstrapping program, for gene expression data. POBO can be used to detect, compare and verify predetermined transcription factor binding site motifs in the promoters of one or two clusters of co-regulated genes. The program calculates the frequencies of the motif in the input promoter sets. A bootstrap analysis detects significantly over- or underrepresented motifs. The output of the program presents bootstrapped results in picture and text formats. The program was tested with published data from transgenic WRKY70 microarray experiments. Intriguingly, motifs recognized by the WRKY transcription factors of plant defense pathways are similarly enriched in both up- and downregulated clusters. POBO analysis suggests slightly modified hypothetical motifs that discriminate between up- and downregulated clusters. In conclusion, POBO allows easy, fast and accurate verification of putative regulatory motifs. The statistical tests implemented in POBO can be useful in eliminating false positives from the results of pattern discovery programs and increasing the reliability of true positives. POBO is freely available from http://ekhidna.biocenter.helsinki.fi:9801/pobo.