An ERF-type transcription factor is involved in the regulation of the dehydrin wzy1-2 gene in wheat.

As stress-inducible proteins, dehydrins exert functional protective role by alleviating the cell damage when plants are suffering from the stresses. However, the upstream regulatory mechanism of these proteins is not very clear. To unravel the regulatory mechanism of dehydrin, a screen of wheat cDNA library from cold and PEG-treated wheat seedlings was performed and a transcription factor TaERF4a (GenBank NO. AFP49822.1) interacting with wheat dehydrin wzy1-2 gene (Gene ID: 100037544) promoter was identified by yeast one-hybrid assay. The regulator TaERF4a and the wzy1-2 gene can respond to the abiotic stress, the induced transcripts of these two genes exhibit a similar expression trend under adverse environmental conditions. In planta, the dual luciferase transient assay analysis showed that TaERF4a can positively regulate the expression of WZY1-2 dehydrin. Therefore, the obtained results suggest that ERF transcription factor can regulate the expression level of the dehydrin gene in wheat.