scholarly journals BHLH Protein

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keyword(s):  
2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (11) ◽  
pp. 5713
Author(s):  
Yiping Zhang ◽  
Li Zhang ◽  
Hai Ma ◽  
Yichu Zhang ◽  
Xiuming Zhang ◽  
...  

APETALA2/ETHYLENE RESPONSIVE FACTOR (AP2/ERF) transcription factors play important roles in plant development and stress response. Although AP2/ERF genes have been extensively investigated in model plants such as Arabidopsis thaliana, little is known about their role in biotic stress response in perennial fruit tree crops such as apple (Malus × domestica). Here, we investigated the role of MdERF100 in powdery mildew resistance in apple. MdERF100 localized to the nucleus but showed no transcriptional activation activity. The heterologous expression of MdERF100 in Arabidopsis not only enhanced powdery mildew resistance but also increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation and cell death. Furthermore, MdERF100-overexpressing Arabidopsis plants exhibited differential expressions of genes involved in jasmonic acid (JA) and salicylic acid (SA) signaling when infected with the powdery mildew pathogen. Additionally, yeast two-hybrid and bimolecular fluorescence complementation assays confirmed that MdERF100 physically interacts with the basic helix–loop–helix (bHLH) protein MdbHLH92. These results suggest that MdERF100 mediates powdery mildew resistance by regulating the JA and SA signaling pathways, and MdbHLH92 is involved in plant defense against powdery mildew. Overall, this study enhances our understanding of the role of MdERF genes in disease resistance, and provides novel insights into the molecular mechanisms of powdery mildew resistance in apple.


Genetics ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 152 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qian Ouyang ◽  
Monica Ruiz-Noriega ◽  
Susan A Henry

Abstract A search was conducted for suppressors of the inositol auxotrophic phenotype of the ino4-8 mutant of yeast. The ino4-8 mutation is a single base pair change that results in substitution of lysine for glutamic acid at position 79 in the bHLH domain of the yeast regulatory protein, Ino4p. Ino4p dimerizes with a second bHLH protein, Ino2p, to form a complex that binds to the promoter of the INO1 gene, activating transcription. Of 31 recessive suppressors of ino4-8 isolated, 29 proved to be alleles of a single locus, identified as REG1, which encodes a regulatory subunit of a protein phosphatase involved in the glucose response pathway. The suppressor mutation, sia1-1, identified as an allele of REG1, caused constitutive INO1 expression and was capable of suppressing the inositol auxotrophy of a second ino4 missense mutant, ino4-26, as well as ino2-419, a missense mutation of INO2. The suppressors analyzed were unable to suppress ino2 and ino4 null mutations, but the reg1 deletion mutation could suppress ino4-8. A deletion mutation in the OPI1 negative regulator was incapable of suppressing ino4-8. The relative roles of the OPI1 and REG1 gene products in control of INO1 expression are discussed.


1994 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 4145-4154
Author(s):  
P Armand ◽  
A C Knapp ◽  
A J Hirsch ◽  
E F Wieschaus ◽  
M D Cole

We have found that a novel basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) protein is expressed almost exclusively in the epidermal attachments sites for the somatic muscles of Drosophila melanogaster. A Drosophila cDNA library was screened with radioactively labeled E12 protein, which can dimerize with many HLH proteins. One clone that emerged from this screen encoded a previously unknown protein of 360 amino acids, named delilah, that contains both basic and HLH domains, similar to a group of cellular transcription factors implicated in cell type determination. Delilah protein formed heterodimers with E12 that bind to the muscle creatine kinase promoter. In situ hybridization with the delilah cDNA localized the expression of the gene to a subset of cells in the epidermis which form a distinct pattern involving both the segmental boundaries and intrasegmental clusters. This pattern was coincident with the known sites of attachment of the somatic muscles to tendon cells in the epidermis. delilah expression persists in snail mutant embryos which lack mesoderm, indicating that expression of the gene was not induced by attachment of the underlying muscles. The similarity of this gene to other bHLH genes suggests that it plays an important role in the differentiation of epidermal cells into muscle attachment sites.


1994 ◽  
Vol 14 (9) ◽  
pp. 6232-6243
Author(s):  
J Zhou ◽  
E N Olson

The muscle-specific basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) protein myogenin activates muscle transcription by binding to target sequences in muscle-specific promoters and enhancers as a heterodimer with ubiquitous bHLH proteins, such as the E2A gene products E12 and E47. We show that dimerization with E2A products potentiates phosphorylation of myogenin at sites within its amino- and carboxyl-terminal transcription activation domains. Phosphorylation of myogenin at these sites was mediated by the bHLH region of E2A products and was dependent on dimerization but not on DNA binding. Mutations of the dimerization-dependent phosphorylation sites resulted in enhanced transcriptional activity of myogenin, suggesting that their phosphorylation diminishes myogenin's transcriptional activity. The ability of E2A products to potentiate myogenin phosphorylation suggests that dimerization induces a conformational change in myogenin that unmasks otherwise cryptic phosphorylation sites or that E2A proteins recruit a kinase for which myogenin is a substrate. That phosphorylation of these dimerization-dependent sites diminished myogenin's transcriptional activity suggests that these sites are targets for a kinase that interferes with muscle-specific gene expression.


Genetics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hana E Littleford ◽  
Karin Kiontke ◽  
David H A Fitch ◽  
Iva Greenwald

Abstract Specialized cells of the somatic gonad primordium of nematodes play important roles in the final form and function of the mature gonad. C. elegans hermaphrodites are somatic females that have a two-armed, U-shaped gonad that connects to the vulva at the midbody. The outgrowth of each gonad arm from the somatic gonad primordium is led by two female Distal Tip Cells (fDTC), while the Anchor Cell (AC) remains stationary and central to coordinate uterine and vulval development. The bHLH protein HLH-2 and its dimerization partners LIN-32 and HLH-12 had previously been shown to be required for fDTC specification. Here, we show that ectopic expression of both HLH-12 and LIN-32 in cells with AC potential transiently transforms them into fDTC-like cells. Furthermore, hlh-12 was known to be required for the fDTCs to sustain gonad arm outgrowth. Here, we show that ectopic expression of HLH-12 in the normally stationary AC causes displacement from its normal position, and that displacement likely results from activation of the leader program of fDTCs because it requires genes necessary for gonad arm outgrowth. Thus, HLH-12 is both necessary and sufficient to promote gonadal regulatory cell migration. As differences in female gonadal morphology of different nematode species reflect differences in the fate or migratory properties of the fDTCs or of the AC, we hypothesized that evolutionary changes in the expression of hlh-12 may underlie evolution of such morphological diversity. However, we were unable to identify an hlh-12 ortholog outside of Caenorhabditis. Instead, by performing a comprehensive phylogenetic analysis of all Class II bHLH proteins in multiple nematode species, we found that HLH-12 evolved within the Caenorhabditis clade, possibly by duplicative transposition of hlh-10. Our analysis suggests that control of gene regulatory hierarchies for gonadogenesis can be remarkably plastic during evolution without adverse phenotypic consequence.


Development ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 124 (11) ◽  
pp. 2179-2189 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Krause ◽  
M. Park ◽  
J.M. Zhang ◽  
J. Yuan ◽  
B. Harfe ◽  
...  

The E proteins of mammals, and the related Daughterless (DA) protein of Drosophila, are ubiquitously expressed helix-loop-helix (HLH) transcription factors that play a role in many developmental processes. We report here the characterization of a related C. elegans protein, CeE/DA, which has a dynamic and restricted distribution during development. CeE/DA is present embryonically in neuronal precursors, some of which are marked by promoter activity of a newly described Achaete-scute-like gene hlh-3. In contrast, we have been unable to detect CeE/DA in CeMyoD-positive striated muscle cells. In vitro gel mobility shift analysis detects dimerization of CeE/DA with HLH-3 while efficient interaction of CeE/DA with CeMyoD is not seen. These studies suggest multiple roles for CeE/DA in C. elegans development and provide evidence that both common and alternative strategies have evolved for the use of related HLH proteins in controlling cell fates in different species.


Development ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 124 (24) ◽  
pp. 4971-4982 ◽  
Author(s):  
Z. Yin ◽  
X.L. Xu ◽  
M. Frasch

The Drosophila tinman homeobox gene has a major role in early mesoderm patterning and determines the formation of visceral mesoderm, heart progenitors, specific somatic muscle precursors and glia-like mesodermal cells. These functions of tinman are reflected in its dynamic pattern of expression, which is characterized by initial widespread expression in the trunk mesoderm, then refinement to a broad dorsal mesodermal domain, and finally restricted expression in heart progenitors. Here we show that each of these phases of expression is driven by a discrete enhancer element, the first being active in the early mesoderm, the second in the dorsal mesoderm and the third in cardioblasts. We provide evidence that the early-active enhancer element is a direct target of twist, a gene encoding a basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) protein, which is necessary for tinman activation. This 180 bp enhancer includes three E-box sequences which bind Twist protein in vitro and are essential for enhancer activity in vivo. Ectodermal misexpression of twist causes ectopic activation of this enhancer in ectodermal cells, indicating that twist is the only mesoderm-specific activator of early tinman expression. We further show that the 180 bp enhancer also includes negatively acting sequences. Binding of Even-skipped to these sequences appears to reduce twist-dependent activation in a periodic fashion, thus producing a striped tinman pattern in the early mesoderm. In addition, these sequences prevent activation of tinman by twist in a defined portion of the head mesoderm that gives rise to hemocytes. We find that this repression requires the function of buttonhead, a head-patterning gene, and that buttonhead is necessary for normal activation of the hematopoietic differentiation gene serpent in the same area. Together, our results show that tinman is controlled by an array of discrete enhancer elements that are activated successively by differential genetic inputs, as well as by closely linked activator and repressor binding sites within an early-acting enhancer, which restrict twist activity to specific areas within the twist expression domain.


10.1038/87300 ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 27 (S4) ◽  
pp. 87-87
Author(s):  
Helene Sjögren ◽  
Barbro Wedell ◽  
Jeanne M. Meis Kindblom ◽  
Lars-Gunnar Kindblom ◽  
Göran Stenman

Nature ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 438 (7066) ◽  
pp. 360-363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuko Muroyama ◽  
Yuko Fujiwara ◽  
Stuart H. Orkin ◽  
David H. Rowitch

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