Twin autonomous bipartite nuclear localization signals direct nuclear import of GT-2

GT-2 is a DNA-binding protein with high target-sequence specificity toward functionally defined, positively acting cis elements in the rice phytochrome A gene promoter. Using immunocytochemical procedures, it is shown here that GT-2 is localized to the nucleus, consistent with a function in transcriptional regulation. Immunoblot and immunocytochemical analyses show that rice shoots contain higher levels of GT-2 protein than roots, and that no photo-induced changes in GT-2 abundance or spatial distribution are detectable in these tissues, a result consistent with the proposed constitutive activity of GT-2. In both shoots and roots, GT-2 protein is undetectable in meristematic tissue but becomes expressed at later stages of cellular development, consistent with a role in contributing to the pattern of phytochrome A gene expression. By transfecting protoplasts with a series of constructs containing deletion derivatives of GT-2 fused to beta-glucuronidase (GUS), followed by in situ localization of GUS activity, two independent, functionally active nuclear localization sequences (NLSs) have been identified in GT-2. One NLS resides within each of a pair of previously identified, spatially separate, trihelix motifs in the protein. Sequence inversion and alanine-scanning mutagenesis has identified residues within these NLSs necessary for nuclear localization. Each NLS contains two basic domains separated by 10 amino acids, conforming to the bipartite class of NLS involved in the targeting of numerous other nuclear localized proteins.