On January 7, 2024, New Phytologist published a research paper titled "Lily LlHSFC2 coordinates with HSFAs to balance heat stress response and improve thermotolerance" online. This study aimed to determine whether HSFCs interact with other HSFs and whether they can participate in HSF regulatory networks. By analyzing heat-inducible HSFC2 members isolated from lily plants, this study highlights the active role of HSFC2 in HSR by synergizing with HSFAs, thereby providing ideas for breeding.
HSFs are core regulators of plant heat stress responses. Many studies have focused on Class A and B HSFs, with relatively few studies on Class C HSFs. In this study, researchers reported a heat-inducible HSFC2 homologous protein involved in heat tolerance in lily plants. LlHSFC2 is located in the nucleus and cytoplasm and exhibits inhibitory ability by binding to heat stress elements. Overexpression of LlHSFC2 in Arabidopsis, tobacco and lily can improve plant thermotolerance. In contrast, silencing LlHSFC2 expression in lily reduced the thermotolerance of lily.
LlHSFC2 can interact with itself, as well as with LlHSFA1, LlHSFA2, LlHSFA3A and LlHSFA3B of lily, AtHSFA1e and AtHSFA2 of Arabidopsis, and NbHSFA2 of tobacco. LlHSFC2 interacts with HSFAs and acts as a coactivator to accelerate their transcriptional activation ability. Notably, co-overexpression of LlHSFC2/LlHSFA3A further improved the thermotolerance of transgenic plants compared with overexpression of LlHSFA3A alone. In addition, after being subjected to heat stress (HS), the homologous interaction of LlHSFC2 is inhibited, but its heterologous interaction with heat-induced HSFAs is promoted, allowing it to play a co-activating role in the establishment and maintenance of thermotolerance.
Reference:
Wu, Z., et al. Lily LlHSFC2 coordinates with HSFAs to balance heat stress response and improve thermotolerance. New Phytol. 2024 Jan 7.
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