The Arabidopsis Cytosolic Thioredoxin h5 Gene Induction by Oxidative Stress and Its W-Box-Mediated Response to Pathogen Elicitor

Abstract The AtTRXh5 protein belongs to the cytosolic thioredoxins h family that, in Arabidopsis, contains eight members showing very distinct patterns and levels of expression. Here, we show that the AtTRXh5 gene is up-regulated during wounding, abscission, and senescence, as well as during incompatible interactions with the bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas syringae. By electrophoretic mobility shift assays, a binding activity on a W-box in the AtTRXh5 promoter region was found induced by treatments with the P. syringae-derived elicitor peptide flg22, suggesting that a WRKY transcription factor controls AtTRXh5 induction upon elicitor treatment. Remarkably, AtTRXh5 was up-regulated in plants overexpressing WRKY6. More generally, AtTRXh5 is induced in response to oxidative stress conditions. Collectively, our data indicate a possible implication of the cytosolic thioredoxin AtTRXh5 in response to pathogens and to oxidative stresses. In addition, this regulation is unique to AtTRXh5 among the thioredoxin h family, arguing in favor of a speciation rather than to a redundancy of the members of this multigenic family.