Heat Stress Factors Expressed during Seed Maturation Differentially Regulate Seed Longevity and Seedling Greening

Abstract

Heat Stress Factor A9 (A9), a seed-specific transcription factor contributing to seed longevity, also enhances phytochrome-dependent seedling greening. The RNA-seq analyses of imbibed-seed transcripts here reported indicated potential additional effects of A9 on cryptochrome-mediated blue-light responses. These analyses also suggested that in contrast to the A9 effects on longevity, which require coactivation by additional factors as A4a, A9 alone might suffice for the enhancement of photomorphogenesis at the seedling stage. We found that upon its seed-specific overexpression, A9 indeed enhanced the expected blue-light responses. Comparative loss-of-function analyses of longevity and greening, performed by similar expression of dominant-negative and inactive forms of A9, not only confirmed the additional greening effects of A9, but also were consistent with A9 not requiring A4a (or additional factors) for the greening effects. Our results strongly indicate that A9 would differentially regulate seed longevity and photomorphogenesis at the seedling stage, A9 alone sufficing for both the phytochrome- and cryptochrome-dependent greening enhancement effects.