ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Cell Research (2006)16:479-488
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Arabidopsis thaliana histone deacetylase 1 (AtHD1) is localized in euchromatic regions and demonstrates histone deacetylase activity in vitro

Paulus M Fong, Lu Tian, Z Jeffrey Chen

¹Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA; 2Molecular Cell and Developmental Biology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA

Correspondence: Z Jeffrey Chen Tel: 512-475-9327; Fax: 512-232-3432; E-mail:zjchen@mail.utexas.edu The University of Texas at Austin, Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology (ICMB), One University Station A-4800, Austin, TX 78712-0159 Received 10 Feb 2006; revised 18 Mar 2006; accepted 21 Mar 2006; published online 15 May 2006

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Arabidopsis thaliana histone deacetylase 1 (AtHD1 or AtHDA19), a homolog of yeast RPD3, is a global regulator of many physiological and developmental processes in plants. In spite of the genetic evidence for a role of AtHD1 in plant gene regulation and development, the biochemical and cellular properties of AtHD1 are poorly understood. Here we report cellular localization patterns of AtHD1 in vivo and histone deacetylase activity in vitro. The transient and stable expression of a green fluorescent protein (GFP)-tagged AtHD1 in onion cells and in roots, seeds and leaves of the transgenic Arabidopsis, respectively, revealed that AtHD1 is localized in the nucleus presumably in the euchromatic regions and excluded from the nucleolus. The localization patterns of AtHD1 are different from those of AtHD2 and AtHDA6 that are involved in nucleolus formation and silencing of transgenes and repeated DNA elements, respectively. In addition, a histone deacetylase activity assay showed that the recombinant AtHD1 produced in bacteria demonstrated a specific histone deacetylase activity in vitro. The data suggest that AtHD1 is a nuclear protein and possesses histone deacetylase activities responsible for global transcriptional regulation important to plant growth and development.

Cell Research (2006) 16:479-488. doi:10.1038/sj.cr.7310059; published online 15 May 2006

Keywords: Arabidopsis, histone deacetylase, RPD3, subcellular localization, gene silencing, chromatin