Redox-inactive CC-type glutaredoxins interfere with TGA transcription factor–dependent repression of target promoters in roots

Changes in nitrogen (N) availability in the soil trigger transcriptional responses in plants to optimize N acquisition, allocation, and remobilization. In roots of N-starved Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) plants, transcriptional activation of genes encoding, for example, low-affinity nitrate transporters, depends on 4 related C-TERMINALLY ENCODED PEPTIDE DOWNSTREAM (CEPD) proteins, also known as ROXY6, ROXY7, ROXY8, and ROXY9. All 21 ROXYs found in A. thaliana interact with members of the TGACG-binding (TGA) family of transcription factors. Here, we demonstrate that 2 Clade I TGAs (TGA1, TGA4) serve as molecular links between CEPDs and their target promoters in roots. In the roxy6 roxy7 roxy8 roxy9 quadruple mutant (named cepd in this manuscript), transcriptional activation of N-starvation-inducible genes is impaired, most likely due to the association of Clade I TGAs with a repressive complex at their target promoters. In wild-type plants, this repressive complex is nonfunctional, and gene expression may be regulated by the N supply-regulated ratio of CEPDs over opposing ROXYs containing the TOPLESS-interacting ALWL motif. Although CEPDs resemble glutaredoxins with glutathione-dependent oxidoreductase activity, a ROXY9 variant with a mutation in the catalytic cysteine in its putative active site can confer wild-type-like regulation of target genes. This finding demonstrates that ROXY9 does not function through redox-dependent mechanisms.