A GATA Transcription Factor from Soybean (<i>Glycine max</i>) Regulates Chlorophyll Biosynthesis and Suppresses Growth in the Transgenic <i>Arabidopsis thaliana</i>

Chlorophyll plays an essential role in photosynthetic light harvesting and energy transduction in green tissues of higher plants and is closely related to photosynthesis and crop yield. Identification of transcription factors (TFs) involved in regulating chlorophyll biosynthesis is still limited in...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Chanjuan Zhang, Yi Huang, Zhiyuan Xiao, Hongli Yang, Qingnan Hao, Songli Yuan, Haifeng Chen, Limiao Chen, Shuilian Chen, Xinan Zhou, Wenjun Huang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2020-08-01
Series:Plants
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2223-7747/9/8/1036
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Summary:Chlorophyll plays an essential role in photosynthetic light harvesting and energy transduction in green tissues of higher plants and is closely related to photosynthesis and crop yield. Identification of transcription factors (TFs) involved in regulating chlorophyll biosynthesis is still limited in soybean (<i>Glycine max</i>), and the previously identified <i>GmGATA58</i> is suggested to potentially modulate chlorophyll and nitrogen metabolisms, but its complete function is still unknown. In this study, subcellular localization assay showed that GmGATA58 was localized in the nucleus. Histochemical GUS assay and qPCR assay indicated that <i>GmGATA58</i> was mainly expressed in leaves and responded to nitrogen, light and phytohormone treatments. Overexpression of <i>GmGATA58</i> in the <i>Arabidopsis thaliana</i> ortholog <i>AtGATA21</i> (<i>gnc</i>) mutant complemented the greening defect, while overexpression in Arabidopsis wild-type led to increasing chlorophyll content in leaves through up-regulating the expression levels of the large of chlorophyll biosynthetic pathway genes, but suppressing plant growth and yield, although the net photosynthetic rate was slightly improved. Dual-luciferase reporter assay also supported that GmGATA58 activated the transcription activities of three promoters of key chlorophyll biosynthetic genes of soybean in transformed protoplast of Arabidopsis. It is concluded that <i>GmGATA58</i> played an important role in regulating chlorophyll biosynthesis, but suppressed plant growth and yield in transgenic Arabidopsis.
ISSN:2223-7747