An alfalfa AP2/ERF transcription factor MsTOE1 negatively regulates salt tolerance in Arabidopsis and directly represses the phenylpropanoid pathway gene MsPAL.

MsTOE1 overexpression in Arabidopsis causes severe growth retardation under salt stress, with leaf yellowing, higher malondialdehyde, and reduced seed germination.

• Why it matters: TOE1’s role in abiotic stress is unclear, and linking TOE1-like regulators to specific salt-response pathways is needed to understand stress regulatory networks.
• What they did: The alfalfa TOE1 homolog MsTOE1 was isolated and shown to be induced by NaCl; Arabidopsis overexpression and transcriptome profiling under low versus high salinity were combined with promoter binding and repression assays for MsPAL.
• The result: MsTOE1 directly binds the MsPAL promoter and represses its transcription in alfalfa, and transcriptomics indicate MsTOE1 shifts phenylpropanoid-related regulation with salinity level, informing how phenylpropanoid reprogramming may relate to salt tolerance.

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