Os02g0766700

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Annotated Information

Function

The basic leucine zipper (bZIP) transcription factors form a large gene family that is important in pathogen defense, light and stress signaling, etc.【1】Expression of OsbZIP23 is strongly induced by a wide spectrum of stresses, including drought, salt, abscisic acid (ABA), and polyethylene glycol treatments, while other stress-responsive genes of this family are slightly induced only by one or two of the stresses. Transactivation assay in yeast demonstrated that OsbZIP23 functions as a transcriptional activator, and the sequences at the N terminus (amino acids 1–59) and a region close to the C terminus (amino acids 210–240) are required for the transactivation activity. Transient expression of OsbZIP23-green fluorescent protein in onion (Allium cepa) cells revealed a nuclear localization of the protein. Transgenic rice overexpressing OsbZIP23 showed significantly improved tolerance to drought and high-salinity stresses and sensitivity to ABA. On the other hand, a null mutant of this gene showed significantly decreased sensitivity to a high concentration of ABA and decreased tolerance to high-salinity and drought stress, and this phenotype can be complemented by transforming the OsbZIP23 back into the mutant. GeneChip and real-time polymerase chain reaction analyses revealed that hundreds of genes were up- or down-regulated in the rice plants overexpressing OsbZIP23. More than half of these genes have been annotated or evidenced for their diverse functions in stress response or tolerance. In addition, more than 30 genes that are possible OsbZIP23-specific target genes were identified based on the comparison of the expression profiles in the overexpressor and the mutant of OsbZIP23. Collectively, these results indicate that OsbZIP23 functions as a transcriptional regulator that can regulate the expression of a wide spectrum of stress-related genes in response to abiotic stresses through an ABA-dependent regulation pathway. OsbZIP23 is a major player of the bZIP family in rice for conferring ABA-dependent drought and salinity tolerance and has high potential usefulness in genetic improvement of stress tolerance.【2】

Expression

In RNA gel-blot analysis,the transcript level of OsbZIP23 was rapidly and strongly induced by drought, high-salinity, polyethylene glycol (PEG), and ABA treatment but remained unchanged after low-temperature treatment (Fig. 2A),which agrees with the microarray data very well.The results suggested it was relatively higher in seedling and flag leaves than in other tissues checked (Fig.2C).

Evolution

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Labs working on this gene

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References

1. Qian Ji;Liang-sheng Zhang;Yi-fei Wang;Jian Wang

 Genome-wide analysis of basic leucine zipper transcription factor families in Arabidopsis thaliana, Oryza sativa and Populus trichocarpa
 Journal of Shanghai University (English Edition), 2009, 13(2): 174-182

2. Yong Xiang;Ning Tang;Hao Du;Haiyan Ye;Lizhong Xiong

 Characterization of OsbZIP23 as a Key Player of the Basic Leucine Zipper Transcription Factor Family for Conferring Abscisic Acid Sensitivity and Salinity and    Drought Tolerance in Rice
 Plant Physiology, 2008, 148(4): 1938-1952