FCA, a Gene Controlling Flowering Time in Arabidopsis, Encodes a Protein Containing RNA-Binding Domains

Macknight, Richard C.; Bancroft, Ian; Page, Tania; Lister, Clare; Schmidt, Renate; Love, Karina; Westphal, Lore; Murphy, George P.; Sherson, Sarah M.; Cobbett, Christopher S.; Dean, Caroline

doi:10.1016/s0092-8674(00)80256-1

Cited by 483 publications

(401 citation statements)

References 45 publications

(12 reference statements)

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“…Autonomous pathway also represses FLC through LD, FCA, FY, FPA, FLD, FVE, FLK and REF6 (Noh et al, 2004;Simpson, 2004). FCA, FY, FPA and FLK proteins are predicted to be involved in RNA metabolism (Lim et al, 2004;Macknight et al, 1997;Schomburg et al, 2001;Simpson et al, 2003). FCA and FPA are RNA-binding proteins involved in repression of FLC and other genes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

NO FLOWERING IN SHORT DAY (NFL) is a bHLH transcription factor that promotes flowering specifically under short-day in Arabidopsis

et al. 2016

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Flowering in plants is a dynamic and synchronized process where various cues including age, day length, temperature and endogenous hormones fine-tune the timing of flowering for reproductive success. Arabidopsis thaliana is a facultative long day (LD) plant where LD photoperiod promotes flowering. Arabidopsis still flowers under shortday (SD) conditions, albeit much later than in LD conditions. Although factors regulating the inductive LD pathway have been extensively investigated, the non-inductive SD pathway is much less understood. Here, we identified a key basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor called NFL (NO FLOWERING IN SHORT DAY) that is essential to induce flowering specifically under SD conditions in Arabidopsis. nfl mutants do not flower under SD conditions, but flower similar to the wild type under LD conditions. The no-flowering phenotype in SD is rescued either by exogenous application of gibberellin (GA) or by introducing della quadruple mutants in the nfl background, suggesting that NFL acts upstream of GA to promote flowering. NFL is expressed at the meristematic regions and NFL is localized to the nucleus. Quantitative RT-PCR assays using apical tissues showed that GA biosynthetic genes are downregulated and the GA catabolic and receptor genes are upregulated in the nfl mutant compared with the wild type, consistent with the perturbation of the endogenous GA biosynthetic and catabolic intermediates in the mutant. Taken together, these data suggest that NFL is a key transcription factor necessary for promotion of flowering under non-inductive SD conditions through the GA signaling pathway.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

NO FLOWERING IN SHORT DAY (NFL) is a bHLH transcription factor that promotes flowering specifically under short-day in Arabidopsis

et al. 2016

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“…Thus, FLC integrates flowering signals from the vernalization and autonomous pathways. Molecular identification of several genes in the autonomous pathway suggested potential roles as regulators of FLC expression based on the function assigned to the deduced proteins [9][10][11][12] . But this information has not provided an understanding of the molecular mechanisms involved in the regulation of FLC expression.…”

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confidence: 99%

Regulation of flowering time by FVE, a retinoblastoma-associated protein

et al. 2004

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The initiation of flowering in plants is controlled by environmental and endogenous signals 1,2 . Molecular analysis of this process in Arabidopsis thaliana indicates that environmental control is exerted through the photoperiod and vernalization pathways, whereas endogenous signals regulate the autonomous and gibberellin pathways. The vernalization and autonomous pathways converge on the negative regulation of FLC 3,4 , a gene encoding a MADS-box protein that inhibits flowering 3,4 . We cloned FVE, a component of the autonomous pathway that encodes AtMSI4, a putative retinoblastomaassociated protein. FVE interacted with retinoblastoma protein in immunoprecipitation assays, and FLC chromatin was enriched in acetylated histones in fve mutants. We conclude that FVE participates in a protein complex repressing FLC transcription through a histone deacetylation mechanism. Our data provide genetic evidence of a new developmental function of these conserved proteins and identify a new genetic mechanism in the regulation of flowering. shown in the upper part, capital letters correspond to the wild-type or mutated nucleotides. In the protein schematic, gray boxes represent WD repeats, the narrow black box represents a putative nuclear localization signal and the asterisk indicates a putative retinoblastoma-binding motif.

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“…Four contain domains that suggest roles in RNA binding or RNA metabolism. Three contain RNAbinding domains: FCA (Macknight et al, 1997) and FPA ) contain two and three RRM-type RNA-binding domains, respectively, and FLOWERING LOCUS K (FLK; Lim et al, 2004;Mockler et al, 2004) contains three K homology domains. FY is related to a group of eukaryotic proteins that play a role in 3# end processing of RNA transcripts (Simpson et al, 2003).…”

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confidence: 99%

Functional Redundancy and New Roles for Genes of the Autonomous Floral-Promotion Pathway

Veley

Michaels

2008

Plant Physiology

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The early-flowering habit of rapid-cycling accessions of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) is, in part, due to the genes of the autonomous floral-promotion pathway (AP). The AP promotes flowering by repressing expression of the floral inhibitor FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC). AP mutants are therefore late flowering due to elevated levels of FLC, and this late-flowering phenotype is eliminated by loss-of-function mutations in FLC. To further investigate the role of the AP, we created a series of double mutants. In contrast to the phenotypes of single mutants, which are largely limited to delayed flowering, a subset of AP double mutants show a range of defects in growth and development. These phenotypes include reduced size, chlorophyll content, growth rate, and fertility. Unlike the effects of the AP on flowering time, these phenotypes are FLC independent. Recent work has also shown that two AP genes, FCA and FPA, are required for the repression and, in some cases, proper DNA methylation of two transposons. We show that similar effects are seen for all AP genes tested. Microarray analysis of gene expression in AP single and double mutants, however, suggests that the AP is not likely to play a broad role in the repression of gene expression through DNA methylation: very few of the genes that have been reported to be up-regulated in DNA methylation mutants are misexpressed in AP mutants. Together, these data indicate that the genes of the AP play important and sometimes functionally redundant roles in aspects of development in addition to flowering time.A fundamental question in biology is how differentiating cells make decisions between alternative fates. The change from vegetative to reproductive development in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) is an attractive model for studying the factors that regulate such developmental transitions. Early in the life cycle, the undifferentiated stem cells of the shoot apical meristem give rise to organ primordia that will produce the vegetative portions of the plant (e.g. leaves). Later, the shoot apical meristem switches to producing primordia that will form the reproductive organs (e.g. flowers). Proper timing of this transition is critical for successful reproduction. Therefore, plants have evolved mechanisms to regulate flowering in response to both endogenous and environmental factors (Boss et al., 2004). These mechanisms help to ensure that plants flower at a suitable time in their development and a favorable time of year.

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FCA, a Gene Controlling Flowering Time in Arabidopsis, Encodes a Protein Containing RNA-Binding Domains

Cited by 483 publications

References 45 publications

NO FLOWERING IN SHORT DAY (NFL) is a bHLH transcription factor that promotes flowering specifically under short-day in Arabidopsis

NO FLOWERING IN SHORT DAY (NFL) is a bHLH transcription factor that promotes flowering specifically under short-day in Arabidopsis

Regulation of flowering time by FVE, a retinoblastoma-associated protein

Functional Redundancy and New Roles for Genes of the Autonomous Floral-Promotion Pathway

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