Cold accumulation of SCOF-1 transcripts is associated with transcriptional activation and mRNA stability

Cold acclimation enhances the transcription of several cold regulated (COR) genes. However, little is known about whether the elevation of the transcriptional level of the COR genes is due to transcriptional activation, or mRNA stability by a low temperature. Recently, we cloned a novel cold-inducible zinc finger protein gene from soybean, SCOF-1, which may function as a positive regulator of the COR gene expression . Here we report that the elevation of the SCOF-1 transcript level by cold stress is associated with both transcriptional activation and post-transcriptional mRNA stability under a low temperature. A nuclear run-on assay reveals that cold acclimation elevates the SCOF-1 transcript about three-fold compared to that of non-acclimated soybean nuclei. Furthermore, SCOF-1 transcripts increased substantially by a low temperature in transgenic tobacco plants that constitutively expressed SCOF-1 under the control of a constitutive cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) 35S promoter. When a transcription inhibitor, cordycepin, was treated with the deacclimating soybean cell, the decay level of the SCOF-1 transcripts was delayed significantly. This suggests that it may affect de novo protein synthesis, which degrades the SCOF-1 mRNA at room temperature. In addition, a secondary structure may be involved in the mRNA stability of SCOF-1 under a low temperature.