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Originally published in Science Express on 29 March 2007
Science 4 May 2007:
Vol. 316. no. 5825, pp. 715 - 719
DOI: 10.1126/science. 1140516
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Research Articles

Signals from Chloroplasts Converge to Regulate Nuclear Gene Expression

Shai Koussevitzky,1,2,3* Ajit Nott,1,2* Todd C. Mockler,2{dagger} Fangxin Hong,1,2{ddagger} Gilberto Sachetto-Martins,2§ Marci Surpin,2|| Jason Lim,1,2 Ron Mittler,3,4 Joanne Chory1,2

Plastid-to-nucleus retrograde signaling coordinates nuclear gene expression with chloroplast function and is essential for the photoautotrophic life-style of plants. Three retrograde signals have been described, but little is known of their signaling pathways. We show here that GUN1, a chloroplast-localized pentatricopeptide-repeat protein, and ABI4, an Apetala 2 (AP2)–type transcription factor, are common to all three pathways. ABI4 binds the promoter of a retrograde-regulated gene through a conserved motif found in close proximity to a light-regulatory element. We propose a model in which multiple indicators of aberrant plastid function in Arabidopsis are integrated upstream of GUN1 within plastids, which leads to ABI4-mediated repression of nuclear-encoded genes.

1 Howard Hughes Medical Institute, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, 10010 North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.
2 Plant Biology Laboratory, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, 10010 North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.
3 Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Nevada, Mail Stop 200, Reno, NV 89557, USA.
4 Department of Plant Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91904, Israel.

* These authors contributed equally to this work.

{dagger} Present address: Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA.

{ddagger} Present address: Department of Biostatistics, Division of Information Sciences, City of Hope National Medical Center and Beckman Research Institute, 1500 Duarte Road, Duarte, CA 91010, USA.

§ Present address: Departamento de Genética, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Caixa Postal 68011, 21941–970, Brazil.

|| Present address: Center for Plant Cell Biology, Department of Botany and Plant Sciences, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521, USA.

To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: chory{at}salk.edu

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