Abstract
Cuticle layer covering most epidermal cells of aerial plant surfaces consists of cutin polymer and wax, and protects from loss of water, pathogen and insects. While WAX INDUCER1(WIN1), a AP2/ERF family transcription factor (TF), is known to activate cutin and epidermal wax biosynthesis genes, however, other regulators are hardly known. To identify novel factors involving to wax biosynthesis, we screened transgenic plants expressing chimeric repressor of various TFs and found that the chimeric repressor of MYB TF, named WAX REGULATOR1(WAR1), induces adhesion of organs due to loss of wax. SEM observation of the stem epidermis revealed that epicuticular wax crystal was decreased in WAR1-SRDX plant. Microarray experiment revealed that WAR1-SRDX and WIN1-SRDX plants have similar transcriptomes. These results indicate that WAR1 directly or indirectly regulates wax biosynthesis as similar manner as WIN1. Now, we are performing the analysis of redundant transcription factors of WAR1 and WIN1.
