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Updated: Apr 8, 2026

Investigating Interactions Between Histone Modifying Enzymes and Transcription Factors in vivo by Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer
Published on: October 14, 2022
SCARECROW-LIKE15 interacts with HISTONE DEACETYLASE19 and is essential for repressing the seed maturation programme
Ming-Jun Gao1, Xiang Li1, Jun Huang1
1Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Saskatoon Research Centre, 107 Science Place, Saskatoon, SK, Canada S7N 0X2.
Abstract:
Epigenetic regulation of gene expression is critical for controlling embryonic properties during the embryo-to-seedling phase transition. Here we report that a histone deacetylase19 (HDA19)-associated regulator, scarecrow-like15 (SCL15), is essential for repressing the seed maturation programme in vegetative tissues. SCL15 is expressed in and GFP-tagged SCL15 predominantly localizes to, the vascular bundles particularly in the phloem companion cells and neighbouring specialized cells. Mutation of SCL15 leads to a global shift in gene expression in seedlings to a profile resembling late embryogenesis in seeds. In scl15 seedlings, many genes involved in seed maturation are markedly derepressed with concomitant accumulation of seed 12S globulin; this is correlated with elevated levels of histone acetylation at a subset of seed-specific loci. SCL15 physically interacts with HDA19 and direct targets of HDA19-SCL15 association are identified. These studies reveal that SCL15 acts as an HDA19-associated regulator to repress embryonic traits in seedlings.
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