heterodimerization of bZIP Transcription Factors

Department "Molekularbiologie und Physiologie"

of the Albrecht-von-Haller-Institute for Plant Sciences

Member of the Göttingen Center for Molecular Biosciences

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Heterodimerization of bZIP Transcription Factors

Dimerization of transcriptionsfactors BZIP-transcription factors are DNA-binding proteins, which bind and regulate their target promoters as dimers (for review see Jacoby et al. 2001). The tobacco bZIP-factor BZI-1 (Heinekamp et al., 2001) forms specific heterodimers with its bZIP-partners BZI-2, BZI-3 und BZI-4 (Strathmann et al., 2001). These homo- or heterodimers are regulating biological processes like:

auxin-induced plant growth and development (more?)
plant pathogen defense responses (more?).

The expression of BZI-genes is controlled by

tissue specific cues
exogenous environmental stimuli (cold, pathogens, light) and
endogenous factors (sugar, hormones)

This project is dealing with the following questions:

Which heterodimers are formed in a specific plant cell?
Which structural features of the ZIP domain is determing homo- or heterodimerisation?
Which stimuli controls heterodimerisation?
Does signal integration occur on the level of transcription?
Which genes are regulated by specific heterodimers?

Our working model: The plant has to adjust its gene expression according to exogenous and endogneous cues. BZI-heterodimers assist in “fine-tuning” of transcription.