Artificial Control in Transgenic Plants of the Activity of Transcription Factors (MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND INFORMATION-Molecular Biology)

Abstract

For artificial control in transgenic plants of the activity of transcription factors, constructed was a DNA cassette encoding the transcriptional activation domain of Herpes Simplex viral protein VP16 and the hormone binding domain of rat glucocorticoid receptor. Combining with DNA segments coding for the DNA binding domain of transcription factors, the VG cassette produced fusion proteins whose activity can be induced in transgenic plants by the exogenous steroid hormone. Thus plant phenotypes specifically induced by the hormone give information on in vivo roles of the transcription factors. In addition, this system provides a tool by which we identifies direct target genes of the transcription factors. The Arabidopsis ATHB-1 and ATHB-2 transcription factors containing the homeodomain and leucine zipper motif have been studied with this system.