The role of NF-Y subunits in transcriptional regulation of the plant defense response

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Abstract

Transcriptional reprogramming plays a significant role in the defense of plants against pathogen infection. In this work, we established that NF-Y transcription factors (TF) act as important regulators of plant immunity. The eukaryotic NF-Y TF is a highly conserved heterotrimeric complex composed of three subunits, NF-YA, NF-YB and NF-YC, which directly bind CCAAT elements in target gene promoters to regulate their expression. In Arabidopsis, a multi-gene family encodes each subunit of the complex, having 10 NF-YA, 10 NF-YB and 10 NF-YC which can hypothetically combine into 1000 unique combinations. This research investigated the combinatorial mechanism of action of NF-Y complexes during the plant defense response against the necrotrophic pathogen Botrytis cinerea. A comprehensive investigation into the formation of these hetero-trimers revealed the ability of NF-YB2 and NF-YC2 to dimerize in planta. Other potential leaf complexes were also discovered confirming the combinatorial capability of NF-Y members. In agreement with the assembly mechanism observed in mammals, subcellular localization performed on Arabidopsis transgenic lines stably expressing NF-Y GFP tagged proteins, detected NF-YA2 exclusively in the nucleus and NF-YB2 and NF-YC2 in both nucleus and cytoplasm. Detailed functional analysis of knockout and overexpressor mutants identified NF-YA2 as a key regulator in the plant defense against B. cinerea as well as an overlapping
functionality between NF-YB2 and NF-YB3 subunits. Additionally, evolutionary analysis in combination with a comparative expression analysis between Arabidopisis, tomato and lettuce NF-Ys during B. cinerea infection, suggested a possible conserved function of some members of NF-YA and NF-YB orthologues genes during the plant defense response.

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