AtCHIP, a U-Box-containing E3 ubiquitin ligase, plays a critical role in temperature stress tolerance in Arabidopsis

The Arabidopsis gene AtCHIP encodes a protein with three tetratricopeptide repeats and a U-box domain, which is structurally similar to the animal CHIP proteins, a new class of E3 ubiquitin ligases. Like animal CHIP proteins, AtCHIP has E3 ubiquitin ligase activity in vitro. AtCHIP is a single-copy gene, and its transcript is up-regulated by several stress conditions such as low and high temperatures. However, increased AtCHIP expression alone was not correlated with increased stress tolerance; in fact, overexpression of AtCHIP in Arabidopsis rendered plants more sensitive to both low- and high-temperature treatments. Higher electrolyte leakage was observed in leaves of AtCHIP overexpression plants after chilling temperature treatment, suggesting that membrane function is likely impaired in these plants under such a condition. These results indicate that AtCHIP plays an important role in plant cellular metabolism under temperature stress conditions.