摘要Arabidopsis MSI1 has fundamental functions in plant development.MSI1 is a subunit of Polycomb group protein complexes and Chromatin assembly factor 1,and it interacts with the Retinoblastoma-related protein 1.Altered levels of MSI1 result in pleiotropic phenotypes,reflecting the complexity of MSI1 protein functions.In order to uncover additional functions of MSI1,we performed transcriptional profiling of wild-type and plants with highly reduced MSI1 levels (msil-cs).Surprisingly,the known functions of MSI1 could only account for a minor part of the transcriptional changes in msi1-cs plants.One of the most striking unexpected observations was the up-regulation of a subset of ABA-responsive genes eliciting the response to drought and salt stress.We report that MSI1 can bind to the chromatin of the drought-inducible downstream target RD20 and suggest a new role for MSI1 in the negative regulation of the Arabidopsis drought-stress response.