THE AP2 DOMAIN OF APETALA2 DEFINES A LARGE NEW FAMILY OF DNA-BINDING PROTEINS IN ARABIDOPSIS

APETALA2 (AP2) plays an important role in the control of Arabidopsis f lower and seed development and encodes a putative transcription factor that is distinguished by a novel DNA binding motif referred to as the AP2 domain. in this study we show that the AP2 domain containing or R AP2 (related to AP2) family of proteins is encoded by a minimum of 12 genes in Arabidopsis. The RAP2 genes encode two classes of proteins, A P2-like and EREBP-like, that are defined by the number of AP2 domains in each polypeptide as well as by two sequence motifs referred to as t he YRG and RAYD elements that are located within each AP2 domain, RAP2 genes are differentially expressed in flower leaf, inflorescence stem , and root. Moreover, the expression of at least three RAP2 genes in v egetative tissues are controlled by AP2. Thus, unlike other floral hom eotic genes, AP2 is active juring both reproductive and vegetative dev elopment.