AUTHOR=Wu Jinfeng , Yan Mingli , Zhang Dawei , Zhou Dinggang , Yamaguchi Nobutoshi , Ito Toshiro 

TITLE=Histone Demethylases Coordinate the Antagonistic Interaction Between Abscisic Acid and Brassinosteroid Signaling in Arabidopsis

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Plant Science

VOLUME=11

YEAR=2020

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-science/articles/10.3389/fpls.2020.596835

DOI=10.3389/fpls.2020.596835

ISSN=1664-462X

ABSTRACT=<p>Abscisic acid (ABA) interacts antagonistically with brassinosteroids (BRs) to control plant growth and development in response to stress. The response to environmental cues includes hormonal control via epigenetic regulation of gene expression. However, the details of the ABA–BR crosstalk remain largely unknown. Here, we show that JUMONJI-C domain containing histone demethylases (JMJs) coordinate the antagonistic interaction between ABA and BR signaling pathways during the post-germination stage in <italic>Arabidopsis</italic>. BR blocks ABA-mediated seedling arrest through repression of <italic>JMJ30</italic>. JMJs remove the repressive histone marks from the <italic>BRASSINAZOLE RESISTANT1</italic> (<italic>BZR1</italic>) locus for its activation to balance ABA and BR signaling pathways. JMJs and BZR1 co-regulate genes encoding three membrane proteins, a regulator of vacuole morphology, and two lipid-transfer proteins, each of which play a different role in transport. BZR1 also regulates stimuli-related target genes in a JMJ-independent pathway. Our findings suggest that the histone demethylases integrate ABA and BR signals, leading to changes in growth program after germination.</p>