Direct regulation of ARGONAUTE7 by miRNA-regulated transcription factors
J. HOYER (1), J. Pruneda-Paz (2), G. Breton (3), M. Hassert (4), S. Kay (5), J. Carrington (4) (1) Donald Danforth Plant Science Center and Washington University in St. Louis, U.S.A.; (2) University of California San Diego, U.S.A.; (3) University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, U.S.A.; (4) Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, U.S.A.; (5) Scripps Research Institute, U.S.A.

Argonautes are the central effector proteins of RNA silencing which bind target transcripts in a small RNA-guided manner. Arabidopsis has ten Argonaute proteins, with specialized roles in RNA-directed DNA methylation, post-transcriptional gene silencing, and anti-viral defense. To better understand specialization among Argonautes (AGOs) at the level of transcriptional regulation we tested a library 1541 transcription factors for binding to the promoters of AGO1, AGO10, and AGO7 using yeast 1-hybrid assays. A ranked list of candidate DNA-binding TFs revealed binding of the AGO7 promoter by a number of proteins in two different miRNA-regulated families with known roles in developmental timing and leaf morphology. We are testing the functional significance of these binding sites for AGO7’s role in vegetative phase change and its polar expression pattern. We are also using reverse genetic, transgenic, chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP), and expression profiling approaches to define the regulatory network involving AGO7, TFs, and the microRNAs that regulate them.

Abstract Number: P14-420
Session Type: Poster