Overexpression of profilin 3 affects cell elongation and F-actin organization in Arabidopsis thaliana

KEY MESSAGE : Reduced levels of profilin 3 do not have a noticeable phenotypic effect; however, elevated profilin 3 levels result in decreased hypocotyl length due to a reduction in cell elongation and F-actin reorganization. The actin cytoskeleton is critical for a variety of cellular processes. The small actin monomer proteins, profilins (PRFs), are encoded by five highly conserved isoforms in Arabidopsis thaliana. PRF3, one of the vegetative isoforms, has 36 more N-terminal amino acid residues than the other four PRFs; however, the functions of PRF3 are mostly unknown. In this study, we demonstrated that PRF3 was strongly expressed in young seedlings, rosette leaves, and cauline leaves, but was weakly expressed in 14-day-old seedlings and flowers. Our data also showed that PRF3 could increase the critical concentration (Cc) of actin assembly in vitro. Overexpression of the full-length PRF3 cDNA resulted in a decrease in the lengths of roots and hypocotyls and delayed seed germination, but PRF3-ΔN36 transgenic plants and prf3 mutant plants showed normal growth when compared with wild-type plants. Microscopy observation revealed that cell elongation was inhibited in the hypocotyl and that F-actin was reorganized by destabilizing microfilaments. These results suggest that the dwarf phenotype of the PRF3 overexpression seedlings may be related to a reduction in cell length and F-actin rearrangement.