Figure 1

Arabidopsis trichome differentiation network. In Arabidopsis the network responsible for the differentiation of trichomes from pluripotent epidermal cells consists of a well-defined group of regulatory proteins belonging to the R2R3-MYB (e.g., GL1) and basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) (e.g., GL3) classes. GL1 proteins complex with GL3 proteins to directly regulate other transcription factors (e.g., GL2) that positively induce trichome initiation, as well as small inhibitory proteins (e.g., CPC). The interaction of GL3 with CPC or any of the other small MYB proteins such as TRY, ETC1, ETC2 or MYBL2 prevent GL3 from interacting with GL1 [24], thus creating a non-functional complex. In this simplified diagram, CPC represent all of these small MYB proteins which clearly show overlapping functions.