Abstract

The plant hormone auxin transcriptionally activates early genes. We have isolated a 14-member family of DNA sequences complementary to indoleacetic acid (IAA)-inducible transcripts in Arabidopsis thaliana. The corresponding genes, IAA1and IAA14, are homologs of PS-1AA4/5and PS-IAA6from pea, AUX22and AUX28from soybean, ARG3and ARG4from mungbean, and AtAux2-11and AtAux2-27from Arabidopsis. The members of the family are differentially expressed in mature Arabidopsisplants. Characterization of IAAgene expression in etiolated seedlings demonstrates specificity for auxin inducibility. The response of most family members to IAA is rapid (within 4 to 30 minutes) and insensitive to cyclohexamide. Cyclohexamide alone induces all the early genes. Auxin-induction of two late genes, IAA7and IAA8, is inhibited by cyclohexamide, indicating requirement of protein synthesis for their activation. All IAAgenes display a biphasic dose response that is optimal at 10 μM IAA. However, individual genes respond differentially between 10 nM and 5μM IAA. Expression of all genes is defective in the Arabidopsisauxin-resistant mutant lines axr1, axr2,and aux1. The encoded polypeptides share four conserved domains, and seven invariant residues in the intervening regions. The spaces vary considerably in length, rendering the calculated molecular mass of IAA proteins to range from 19 kDa to 36 kDa. Overall sequence identity between members of the family is highly variable (36 to 87%). Their most significant structural features are functional nuclear transport signals, and a putative βαα-fold whose modeled three dimensional structure appears to be compatible with the prokaryotic β-ribbon DNA recognition motif. The data suggest that auxin induces in a differential and hierarchical fashion a large family of early genes that encode a structurally diverse class of nuclear proteins. These proteins are proposed to mediate tissue-specific and cell-type restricted responses to the hormone during plant growth and development.

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