Arabidopsis COP1-interacting protein 1 is a positive regulator of ABA response

COP1-interacting protein 1 (CIP1, At5g41790) was the first reported interacting protein for CONSTITUTIVE PHOTOMORPHOGENIC 1 (COP1) of Arabidopsis; however its physiological function has remained unknown for two decades. Here we show that CIP1 is a positive regulator of abscisic acid (ABA) response. CIP1 is mainly expressed in the photosynthetic cells and the vascular tissue, and its promoter activity can be induced by osmotic stress and ABA. The CIP1 protein is localized to the plasma membrane. A T-DNA insertion mutant cip1-1 was then characterized. The mutant is sensitive to osmotic stress and has ABA insensitive phenotypes. RNA sequencing showed that cip1-1 has lower levels of gene expression in abiotic stress response compared with the wild-type. Meanwhile, transcript levels of ABA biosynthesis genes are higher in cip1-1 than in the wild-type. These results suggested that CIP1 is positively involved in ABA response.