Arabidopsis thaliana histone deacetylase 1 (AtHD1) is localized in euchromatic regions and demonstrates histone deacetylase activity in vitro

Arabidopsis thaliana histone deacetylase 1 (AtHD1 or AtHDA19), a homolog of yeast RPD3, is a global regulator of many physiological and developmental processes in plants. In spite of the genetic evidence for a role of AtHD1 in plant gene regulation and development, the biochemical and cellular properties of AtHD1 are poorly understood. Here we report cellular localization patterns of AtHD1 in vivo and histone deacetylase activity in vitro. The transient and stable expression of a green fluorescent protein (GFP)-tagged AtHD1 in onion cells and in roots, seeds and leaves of the transgenic Arabidopsis, respectively, revealed that AtHD1 is localized in the nucleus presumably in the euchromatic regions and excluded from the nucleolus. The localization patterns of AtHD1 are different from those of AtHD2 and AtHDA6 that are involved in nucleolus formation and silencing of transgenes and repeated DNA elements, respectively. In addition, a histone deacetylase activity assay showed that the recombinant AtHD1 produced in bacteria demonstrated a specific histone deacetylase activity in vitro. The data suggest that AtHD1 is a nuclear protein and possesses histone deacetylase activities responsible for global transcriptional regulation important to plant growth and development.