Eukaryotic release factor 1-2 affects Arabidopsis responses to glucose and phytohormones during germination and early seedling development

Germination and early seedling development are coordinately regulated by glucose and phytohormones such as ABA, GA, and ethylene. However, the molecules that affect plant responses to glucose and phytohormones remain to be fully elucidated. Eukaryotic release factor 1 (eRF1) is responsible for the recognition of the stop codons in mRNAs during protein synthesis. Accumulating evidence indicates that eRF1 functions in other processes in addition to translation termination. The physiological role of eRF1-2, a member of the eRF1 family, in Arabidopsis was examined here. The eRF1-2 gene was found to be specifically induced by glucose. Arabidopsis plants overexpressing eRF1-2 were hypersensitive to glucose during germination and early seedling development. Such hypersensitivity to glucose was accompanied by a dramatic reduction of the expression of glucose-regulated genes, chlorophyll a/b binding protein and plastocyanin. The hypersensitive response was not due to the enhanced accumulation of ABA. In addition, the eRF1-2 overexpressing plants showed increased sensitivity to paclobutrazol, an inhibitor of GA biosynthesis, and exogenous GA restored their normal growth. By contrast, the loss-of-function erf1-2 mutant exhibited resistance to paclobutrazol, suggesting that eRF1-2 may exert a negative effect on the GA signalling pathway. Collectively, these data provide evidence in support of a novel role of eRF1-2 in affecting glucose and phytohormone responses in modulating plant growth and development.