Transcriptional responses and regulations to deficient phosphorus in plants

Abstract

Significant progress has been made over the past several years in the understanding of phosphorus (Pi)-starvation responses in plants and their regulation. The transcriptional changes that occur in response to Pi starvation are beginning to be revealed, although much is left to understand about their significance. In this paper, the recent progresses on the gene expression changes under deficient-Pi, cis-regulatory elements involved in response to deficient-Pi, the transcriptional control of Pi-starvation responses in eukaryotes, transcription factors involved in response to Pi-starvation, the role of MicroRNA on regulation of phosphate homeostasis, and phosphate sensing and signal transduction in plants have been summarized. The purpose of this review is to provide some basis for further elucidation of the transcriptional responses and regulations, and the networks of Pi sensing and signal transduction under deficient-Pi in plants in the future.

Key words： deficient phosphorus; transcriptional response; transcriptional factor; Pi sensing and signal transduction

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) in the early stage (No. 2007CB116209) and the Natural Science Foundation of Hebei Province, China (No. C2007000476).

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