Wellington Muchero / Oak Ridge National Laboratory
The primary role of ANGUSTIFOLIA (AN), designated as C-TERMINAL BINDING PROTEIN (CtBP), is the transcriptional co-repression of tumor suppressor and pro-apoptotic genes in mammals. However, the nuclear function of AN remains unstudied in plants. Here, we demonstrated that AN can accumulate in the nucleus and functions as a transcriptional repressor. By interacting with another nuclear protein TYROSYL-DNA PHOSPHODIESTERASE1 (TDP1), AN imposes transcriptional repression on MYB46 which encodes a key transcription factor regulating phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, while releasing the TDP1-imposed transcriptional repression on WRKY33 which encodes a transcription factor regulating the ethylene/jasmonic acid (ET/JA) signaling pathway. Consistent with these molecular and biochemical results, genetic analyses of Arabidopsis mutants and transgenic plants demonstrated that AN regulates the expressions of WRKY33, MYB46, as well as their downstream genes involved in salicylic acid (SA) and ET/JA signaling pathways and that AN alters plant defense capability against biotrophic and necrotrophic pathogens. Collectively, these findings suggest that AN functions as a transcriptional repressor to co-regulate the expression of MYB46 and WRKY33 to modulate plant defenses against biotrophic and necrotrophic pathogens.