Abstract
WUSCHEL is known to be a multiple functional gene, which is involved in regulate the stem cell fate of shoot and floral meristems, transition of embryonic to vegetative phase, and phytohormone signaling. WUSCHEL was reported to be an activator of AGAMOUS and a repressor of the ARR genes. These suggest that WUSCHEL has bifunctional transcription factor, which acts as activator or repressor depending on the target gene. But the functional mechanisms of WUSCHEL was not fully analyzed.
The transient assay using 35S-GAL4BD-TATA-LUC reporter gene showed that WUSCHEL had a repression activity. A series of deletion analysis revealed that two regions of WUACHEL gene are necessary for repression activity. One is the EAR-like motif, which previously reported as a repression domain, and the other is novel region that is conserved among WUSCHEL-related homeobox genes. In this report, we discuss the possible function of the repression domains.
