Inhibition of ABA signaling by clade A PP2Cs. (A–C) Inhibition of ABA-induced reporter expression by different amounts of PP2C effector constructs in the presence of 10 µM exogenous ABA. The ABA response without PP2C effector was set to 100%, and the analysis was performed as outlined in Fig. 1. The clade E PP2C (PP2CE, At5g27930) served as a negative control (C, interrupted line). (D) Phylogenetic tree of the nine clade A PP2Cs of Arabidopsis. The percentage of conserved clusters in the bootstrap test with 1,000 replicates is shown. (E and F) Activation of the HAB1-inhibited ABA response (0.25 µg effector, 90% inhibition) by (E) various levels of RCAR12 (R12) in the absence (open squares) and presence of 5 µM exogenous ABA (filled squares) compared with the empty vector control (EV, open circles). (F) ABA dependence of reporter expression in protoplasts transfected with 5 µg DNA of RCAR12 effector or EV. Each data point represents the mean value of at least three independent transfections (mean ± SD).