Arabidopsis ASYMMETRIC LEAVES2 and Nucleolar Factors Are Coordinately Involved in the Perinucleolar Patterning of AS2 Bodies and Leaf Development

Arabidopsis ASYMMETRIC LEAVES2 (AS2) plays a key role in the formation of flat symmetric leaves. AS2 represses the expression of the abaxial gene ETTIN/AUXIN RESPONSE FACTOR3 (ETT/ARF3). AS2 interacts in vitro with the CGCCGC sequence in ETT/ARF3 exon 1. In cells of leaf primordia, AS2 localizes at peripheral regions of the nucleolus as two AS2 bodies, which are partially overlapped with chromocenters that contain condensed 45S ribosomal DNA repeats. AS2 contains the AS2/LOB domain, which consists of three sequences conserved in the AS2/LOB family: the zinc finger (ZF) motif, the ICG sequence including the conserved glycine residue, and the LZL motif. AS2 and the genes NUCLEOLIN1 (NUC1), RNA HELICASE10 (RH10), and ROOT INITIATION DEFECTIVE2 (RID2) that encode nucleolar proteins coordinately act as repressors against the expression of ETT/ARF3. Here, we examined the formation and patterning of AS2 bodies made from as2 mutants with amino acid substitutions in the ZF motif and the ICG sequence in cells of cotyledons and leaf primordia. Our results showed that the amino acid residues next to the cysteine residues in the ZF motif were essential for both the formation of AS2 bodies and the interaction with ETT/ARF3 DNA. The conserved glycine residue in the ICG sequence was required for the formation of AS2 bodies, but not for the DNA interaction. We also examined the effects of nuc1, rh10, and rid2 mutations, which alter the metabolism of rRNA intermediates and the morphology of the nucleolus, and showed that more than two AS2 bodies were observed in the nucleolus and at its periphery. These results suggested that the patterning of AS2 bodies is tightly linked to the morphology and functions of the nucleolus and the development of flat symmetric leaves in plants.