Ethylene and nitric oxide involvement in the up-regulation of key genes related to iron acquisition and homeostasis in Arabidopsis

Abstract

In a previous work it was shown that ethylene participates in the up-regulation of several Fe acquisition genes of Arabidopsis, such as AtFIT, AtFRO2, and AtIRT1. In this work the relationship between ethylene and Fe-related genes in Arabidopsis has been looked at in more depth. Genes induced by Fe deficiency regulated by ethylene were searched for. For this, studies were conducted, using microarray analysis and reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR), to determine which of the genes up-regulated by Fe deficiency are simultaneously suppressed by two different ethylene inhibitors (cobalt and silver thiosulphate), assessing their regulation by ethylene in additional experiments. In a complementary experiment, it was determined that the Fe-related genes up-regulated by ethylene were also responsive to nitric oxide (NO). Further studies were performed to analyse whether Fe deficiency up-regulates the expression of genes involved in ethylene biosynthesis [S-adenosylmethionine synthetase, 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate (ACC) synthase, and ACC oxidase genes] and signalling (AtETR1, AtCTR1, AtEIN2, AtEIN3, AtEIL1, and AtEIL3). The results obtained show that both ethylene and NO are involved in the up-regulation of many important Fe-regulated genes of Arabidopsis, such as AtFIT, AtbHLH38, AtbHLH39, AtFRO2, AtIRT1, AtNAS1, AtNAS2, AtFRD3, AtMYB72, and others. In addition, the results show that Fe deficiency up-regulates genes involved in both ethylene synthesis (AtSAM1, AtSAM2, AtACS4, AtACS6, AtACS9, AtACO1, and AtACO2) and signalling (AtETR1, AtCTR1, AtEIN2, AtEIN3, AtEIL1, and AtEIL3) in the roots.