Transcriptional Regulation of Al Tolerance in Plants

Abstract

Great progresses have been made in understating of molecular mechanisms of Al tolerance in plants during last decade. A number of Al-tolerance genes have been functionally characterized, especially in rice and Arabidopsis. Several transcription factors including a C2H2 zinc finger-type ART1/STOP1 have been identified, but only a few downstream genes regulated by ART1 and STOP1 are similar, indicating different regulation mechanism of Al tolerance in rice and Arabidopsis. Transcriptional regulation of the Al-tolerance genes also differs with plant species and genes. Four different patterns have been reported including increase of gene copy number in the genome, insertion of transposon-like sequences, tandem repeat sequences, and increase of cis-acting element of transcription factor in the promoter region. All these alternations in the genome enhance the expression of Al-tolerance genes.