Abstract
Transcriptional repressors were recently proposed to play a key role in modulating the plant response and tolerance to abiotic stresses. A subset of these transcriptional repressors belongs to the C2H2-type zinc-finger gene family and contains an EAR repressor domain. To characterize the role of this type of proteins in the stress response and tolerance, we analyzed the function of Arabidopsis genes encoding six different C2H2-type zinc finger proteins (AZF1, AZF2, AZF3, ZAT6, ZAT8, ZAT10/STZ). Transient expression analysis using synthetic green fluorescent protein fusion genes indicated that these zinc finger proteins are localized to the nucleus. RNA gel-blot analysis showed that expression of the AZF2, ZAT6 and ZAT10 genes was strongly induced by dehydration, high-salinity, low temperature and abscisic acid treatment. Currently, we are analyzing down-regulated genes in transgenic plants overexpressing AZF1 and AZF2 by using Arabidopsis microarray analysis.
