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The bHLH-type transcription factor AtAIB positively regulates ABA response in Arabidopsis

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Abstract

The phytohormone ABA was known to play a vital role in modulating plant responses to drought stress. Here, we report that a nuclear-localized basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH)-type protein, AtAIB, positively regulates ABA response in Arabidopsis. The expression of AtAIB was transitorily induced by ABA and PEG, although its transcripts were accumulated in various organs. We provided evidence showing that AtAIB has transcriptional activation activity in yeast. Knockdown of AtAIB expression caused reduced sensitivity to ABA, whereas overexpression of this gene led to elevated sensitivity to ABA in cotyledon greening and seedling root growth. Furthermore, soil-grown plants overexpressing AtAIB showed increased drought tolerance. Taken together, these results suggested that AtAIB functions as a transcription activator involved in the regulation of ABA signaling in Arabidopsis.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Arabidopsis Biological Resources Center for providing the T-DNA insertion mutant salk_087068. This work was supported by grants from the Ministry of Science and Technology of china (Grant No. 2006CB910604) and the national natural science foundation of china (Grant Nos. 30425033 and 30530440 to C. L.).

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  1. State Key Laboratory of Plant Genomics and Center for Plant Gene Research, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 5 Datun Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100101, China

    Hongmei Li, Jiaqiang Sun, Yingxiu Xu, Hongling Jiang, Xiaoyan Wu & Chuanyou Li

  2. Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100039, China

    Hongmei Li & Yingxiu Xu

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  1. Hongmei Li
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  2. Jiaqiang Sun
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Correspondence to Chuanyou Li.

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Li, H., Sun, J., Xu, Y. et al. The bHLH-type transcription factor AtAIB positively regulates ABA response in Arabidopsis . Plant Mol Biol 65, 655–665 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11103-007-9230-3

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