The functional diversity of plant valine-qlutamine (VQ) proteins is closely associated with their partners WRKY transcription factors, and also with a complex network of signaling pathways that mediated by hormone molecules. We reported genome-wide expression profiles of differentially expressed rice VQ genes under nitric oxide (NO) treatment based on a microarray analysis. Cluster analysis of expression patterns revealed that some VQ genes and WRKY genes shared similar expression trends. Prediction of cis-elements showed that W-box or W-box-like sequences were overrepresented within the promoters of most of NO-responsive VQ genes. In particular, the similarly expressed OsVQ7 and OsWRKY24 showed great induction upon NO triggering. Transient expression assay and chromatin immunoprecipitation analysis demonstrated that OsWRKY24 was specifically bound to the promoter regions of OsVQ7 and OsWRKY24 itself, which contain multiple copies of W-box or W-box-like cis-elements. Yeast-two-hybrid assay indicated that OsWRKY24 can interact physically with OsVQ7 through the C-terminal of WRKY domain. The results suggested that OsVQ7 and OsWRKY24 may form an auto- and cross-regulation circuit that is required for tight regulation and fine-tuning of physiological processes they are involved in. These findings provided a solid foundation for exploring the specific functions of the VQ protein family in NO signaling pathway.

植物缬氨酸-谷氨酰胺（VQ）蛋白的功能多样性与其伴侣WRKY转录因子密切相关，还与由激素分子介导的信号通路的复杂网络密切相关。我们报道了基于微阵列分析的一氧化氮（NO）处理下差异表达的水稻VQ基因的全基因组表达谱。表达模式的聚类分析表明，一些VQ基因和WRKY基因具有相似的表达趋势。顺式元素的预测表明W-box或W-box-like序列在大多数NO响应VQ基因的启动子中均过分表达。特别是，类似表示的Os VQ7和Os WRKY24在NO触发时显示出极大的诱导力。瞬时表达测定和染色质免疫沉淀分析表明，OsWRKY24特异性结合到OsVQ7和OsWRKY24本身的启动子区域，其中包含W-box或W-box-like顺式元件的多个副本。酵母二杂交试验表明，OsWRKY24可以通过WRKY域的C端与OsVQ7发生物理相互作用。结果表明，OsVQ7和OsWRKY24可能会形成自动调节和交叉调节电路，这是它们所涉及的生理过程的严格调节和微调所必需的。这些发现为探索VQ蛋白的特定功能提供了坚实的基础。家族中的NO信号通路。