Constitutive Expression of the Tomato C2H2-Type Zinc Finger Protein SlZF3 in Arabidopsis Alters Its Development, Anthocyanin Accumulation and Abiotic Stress Tolerance

The zinc finger transcription factor superfamily participates in regulating various aspects of plant development and stress response. SlZF3 is a C2H2-type zinc finger protein with double C2H2 domains isolated from tomato. Obvious accumulation of anthocyanin was evident in SlZF3-expressing Arabidopsis lines under illumination richen with yellow light. Delay in development, and enhanced drought and salt tolerance were also observed in the transgenic lines. Besides, the ascorbic acid content was increased significantly in the transgenic lines as compared to the wild-type. Real time RT-PCR data demonstrated that the key regulators MYB (PAP1 and PAP2) and genes involved in the flavonoid and anthocyanin biosynthesis were strongly induced in the transgenic lines under yellow light environment. Transcript profiling revealed that four key genes (FT, SOC1, AP1 and LFY) regulating flowering and their upstream regulators (FLC) were significantly altered in the transgenic lines. Yeast two hybridization and bimolecular fluorescence complementation assays showed that SlZF3 interacts with CSN5B and RD21A from Arabidopsis. Taken together, our results suggest multiple roles of SlZF3 in plant development and stress response, and some of them were potentially dependent upon yellow light.