Dimerization and DNA-binding of ASR1, a small hydrophilic protein abundant in plant tissues suffering from water loss

The Asr gene family is present in Spermatophyta. Its members are generally activated under water stress. We present evidence that tomato ASR1, one of the proteins of the family, accumulates in seed during late stages of embryogenesis, a physiological process characterized by water loss. In vitro, electrophoretic assays show a homo-dimeric structure for ASR1 and highlight strong non-covalent interactions between monomers prone to self-assemble. Direct visualization of single molecules by atomic force microscopy (AFM) confirms that ASR1 forms homodimers and that uncovers both monomers and dimers bind double stranded DNA.