Trithorax-group protein ATX5 mediates the glucose response via impacting the HY1-ABI4 signaling module

Trithorax-group Protein ARABIDOPSIS TRITHORAX5 modulates the glucose response. Glucose is an evolutionarily conserved modulator from unicellular microorganisms to multicellular animals and plants. Extensive studies have shown that the Trithorax-group proteins (TrxGs) play essential roles in different biological processes by affecting histone modifications and chromatin structures. However, whether TrxGs function in the glucose response and how they achieve the control of target genes in response to glucose signaling in plants remain unknown. Here, we show that the Trithorax-group Protein ARABIDOPSIS TRITHORAX5 (ATX5) affects the glucose response and signaling. atx5 loss-of-function mutants display glucose-oversensitive phenotypes compared to the wild-type (WT). Genome-wide RNA-sequencing analyses have revealed that ATX5 impacts the expression of a subset of glucose signaling responsive genes. Intriguingly, we have established that ATX5 directly controls the expression of HY1 by trimethylating H3 lysine 4 of the Arabidopsis Heme Oxygenase1 (HY1) locus. Glucose signaling causes the suppression of ATX5 activity and subsequently reduces the H3K4me3 levels at the HY1 locus, thereby leading to the increased expression of ABSCISIC ACID-INSENSITIVE4 (ABI4). This result suggests that an important ATX5-HY1-ABI4 regulatory module governs the glucose response. This idea is further supported by genetic evidence showing that an atx5 hy1-100 abi4 triple mutant showed a similar glucose-insensitive phenotype as compared to that of the abi4 single mutant. Our findings show that a novel ATX5-HY1-ABI4 module controls the glucose response in Arabidopsis thaliana.