Integration of water stress response: cell expansion and cuticle deposition in Arabidopsis thaliana

Inhibition of cell expansion and modification in the accumulation of cuticle components are two important processes that plants adopted to respond to water deficit. In our recent publication in The Plant Journal we characterized an Arabidopsis thaliana transcription factor, belonging to the R2R3-MYB family, specifically expressed in response to water deficit, involved in the regulation of these two processes. The overexpression of this gene causes both the reduction of mRNA level of some genes involved in cell expansion and the accumulation of transcript of genes with a putative role in cuticle synthesis and deposition. In this addendum we propose a model for the function of this transcription factor as an integrator of the pathway that induces cuticle components synthesis and deposition and the process that blocks cell expansion in response to water stress.