title: Functional analysis of the activation domain of RF2a, a rice transcription factor.
abstract: Rice transcription factor RF2a binds to the BoxII cis element of the promoter of rice tungro bacilliform virus and activates promoter expression. The acidic acid-rich domain of RF2a is a transcription activator and has been partially characterized (Dai et al., 2003). The RF2a acidic domain (A; amino acids 49-116) was fused with the synthetic zinc finger ZF-TF 2C7 and was co-introduced with a reporter gene into transgenic Arabidopsis plants. Expression of the reporter gene was increased up to seven times by the effector. In transient assays in tobacco BY-2 protoplasts, we identified a subdomain comprising amino acids 56-84 (A5) that was equally as effective as an activator as the entire acidic domain. A chemically inducible system was used to show determined that A and A5 domains are equally as effective in transcription activation as the well-characterized VP16 activation domain. Bioinformatics analyses revealed that the A5 domain is present only in b-ZIP transcription factors. In dicots, the A domain contains an insertion of four amino acids that is not present in monocot proteins. The A5 domain, and similar domains in other b-ZIP transcription factors, is predicted to form an anti-parallel beta sheet structure.
authors.affiliation: Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, St Louis, MO 63132, USA.
authors.forename: M Isabel
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Ordiz
authors.forename: Jaemo
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: W Brad
authors.initials: WB
authors.lastname: Barbazuk
authors.forename: Roger N
authors.initials: RN
authors.lastname: Beachy
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D019295:Computational Biology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D012275:Oryza / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D054730:Protein Interaction Domains and Motifs; D017433:Protein Structure, Secondary; D018749:RNA, Plant / Q000235:genetics; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D020539:Sequence Analysis, Protein; D014026:Nicotiana / Q000378:metabolism; D015534:Trans-Activators / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D014170:Transformation, Genetic; D052641:Tungrovirus / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D018749:RNA, Plant; D015534:Trans-Activators; D014157:Transcription Factors