Abstract
Infraction of the ‘one gene, one protein’ rule, alternative splicing (AS), as a post-transcriptional control mechanism allows individual genes to produce multiple polypeptide isoforms as a result of the production of different mRNAs from a certain gene. This distinct and widespread molecular process across plant species represents an important mechanism that lead to an increases in proteome complexity and also has a function in quantitative gene control. In plants, this post- transcriptional mechanism is markedly induced in response to environmental stresses. Recent studies have identified alternative splicing events that allow rapid adjustment of the abundance and function of key stress-response components. Traditional gene-by-gene investigations of alternative splicing mechanisms have been complemented by global approaches. These promise to reveal details of the nature and operation of cellular codes that are constituted by combinations of regulatory elements in pre-mRNA substrates and by cellular complements of splicing regulators, which together determine regulated splicing pathways. Several transcription factors are presently known to regulate the response to cold, salt and drought stress. In this review, I primarily focus on some of these transcription factors in plants; the dehydration-responsive element-binding protein 2A (DREB2A), that encodes a transcription factor which binds to DRE/CRT cis-elements (responsive to low-temperature and drought stress) and ICE2, which is a transcription factor of the bHLH family that participates in the response to deep freezing through the cold acclimation- dependent pathway. The involvement of these two TFs in relation to CBFs response to abiotic stresses through AS is discussed too.