Functional analysis of the Arabidopsis TETRASPANIN gene family in plant growth and development

TETRASPANIN (TET) genes encode conserved integral membrane proteins that are known in animals to function in cellular communication during gamete fusion, immunity reaction and pathogen recognition. In plants, functional information is limited to one of the 17 members of the Arabidopsis TET gene family and to expression data in reproductive stages. Here, the promoter activity of all 17 Arabidopsis TET genes was investigated by pAtTET::NLS-GFP/GUS reporter lines throughout the life cycle, which predicted functional divergence in the paralogous genes per clade. However, partial overlap was observed for many TET genes across the clades, correlating with few phenotypes in single mutants and therefore requiring double mutant combinations for functional investigation. Mutational analysis showed a role for TET13 in primary root growth and lateral root development, and redundant roles for TET5 and TET6 in leaf and root growth through negative regulation of cell proliferation. Strikingly, a number of TET genes were expressed in embryonic and seedling progenitor cells and remained expressed until the differentiation state in the mature plant, suggesting a dynamic function over developmental stages. cis-regulatory elements together with transcription factor binding data provided molecular insight into the site, conditions and perturbations that affect TET gene expression, and positioned the TET genes in different molecular pathways; the data represent a hypothesis-generating resource for further functional analyses.