Phytochrome, photosynthesis and flowering of Arabidopsis thaliana: photophysiological studies using mutants and transgenic lines

2001 ◽  
Vol 28 (5) ◽  
pp. 401 ◽  
Author(s):  
David J. Bagnall ◽  
Rod W. King
Keyword(s):  
Arabidopsis Thaliana ◽  
Photoperiodic Response ◽  
High Irradiance ◽  
Phytochrome A ◽  
Wild Type ◽  
Long Day ◽  
Transgenic Lines ◽  
A Minor ◽  
Type Response ◽  
Plant Arabidopsis Thaliana

A number of phytochrome mutants have been examined for involvement in high irradiance (HIR) or red/far-red (R/FR) end-of-day (EOD) photoresponses during flowering of the long-day (LD) plant, Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh. A large component of phytochrome A (phyA) response is shown to involve an indirect effect via photosynthesis. When grown autotrophically in soil at a low irradiance (80 mol m–2 s–1), the phyA-211 mutant flowered extremely late compared with wild type and its leaf area was halved, both effects being reversed by increase in photosynthetic irradiance. Supplying sucrose via agar led to very early flowering with little indication of an additional direct phyA HIR. For light-stable phytochrome apoprotein mutants (phyB, phyD) or chromophore mutants (hy1, hy2), flowering was early and R/FR photoreversible EOD response was erased. Conversely, flowering was delayed in a transgenic line overexpressing the PHYB apoprotein. The FR EOD promotion of flowering via phyB was retained in darkness, brief night interruptions mimicking LD response. This novel finding emphasizes the importance of phyB-like phytochromes, with phyA acting indirectly. Whether phyB influences time measurement remains uncertain as we found no rhythmicity in this response to night interruptions. Overall, the role(s) of phytochromes in the regulation of flowering of Arabidopsis include EOD phyB-type response, a minor phyA photoperiodic response, and a large indirect phyA effect involving photosynthesis.

scholarly journals Conserved Cu-MicroRNAs in Arabidopsis thaliana Function in Copper Economy under Deficiency

Plants ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Shahbaz ◽  
Marinus Pilon
Keyword(s):  
Arabidopsis Thaliana ◽  
Small Rnas ◽  
Wild Type ◽  
Microrna Target ◽  
Electron Carrier ◽  
Cu Deficiency ◽  
Regulatory Circuits ◽  
Transgenic Lines ◽  
Cu Homeostasis

Copper (Cu) is a micronutrient for plants. Three small RNAs, which are up-regulated by Cu deficiency and target transcripts for Cu proteins, are among the most conserved microRNAs in plants. It was hypothesized that these Cu-microRNAs help save Cu for the most essential Cu-proteins under deficiency. Testing this hypothesis has been a challenge due to the redundancy of the Cu microRNAs and the properties of the regulatory circuits that control Cu homeostasis. In order to investigate the role of Cu-microRNAs in Cu homeostasis during vegetative growth, we used a tandem target mimicry strategy to simultaneously inhibit the function of three conserved Cu-microRNAs in Arabidopsis thaliana. When compared to wild-type, transgenic lines that express the tandem target mimicry construct showed reduced Cu-microRNA accumulation and increased accumulation of transcripts that encode Cu proteins. As a result, these mimicry lines showed impaired photosynthesis and growth compared to wild type on low Cu, which could be ascribed to a defect in accumulation of plastocyanin, a Cu-containing photosynthetic electron carrier, which is itself not a Cu-microRNA target. These data provide experimental support for a Cu economy model where the Cu-microRNAs together function to allow maturation of essential Cu proteins under impending deficiency.

The early-flowering mutant efs is involved in the autonomous promotion pathway of Arabidopsis thaliana

Development ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 126 (21) ◽  
pp. 4763-4770 ◽  
Author(s):  
W.J. Soppe ◽  
L. Bentsink ◽  
M. Koornneef
Keyword(s):  
Arabidopsis Thaliana ◽  
Flowering Time ◽  
Double Mutant ◽  
Plant Size ◽  
Early Flowering ◽  
Wild Type ◽  
Late Flowering ◽  
Long Day ◽  
Short Days ◽  
Transition To Flowering

The transition to flowering is a crucial moment in a plant's life cycle of which the mechanism has only been partly revealed. In a screen for early flowering, after mutagenesis of the late-flowering fwa mutant of Arabidopsis thaliana, the early flowering in short days (efs) mutant was identified. Under long-day light conditions, the recessive monogenic efs mutant flowers at the same time as wild type but, under short-day conditions, the mutant flowers much earlier. In addition to its early-flowering phenotype, efs has several pleiotropic effects such as a reduction in plant size, fertility and apical dominance. Double mutant analysis with several late-flowering mutants from the autonomous promotion (fca and fve) and the photoperiod promotion (co, fwa and gi) pathways of flowering showed that efs reduces the flowering time of all these mutants. However, efs is completely epistatic to fca and fve but additive to co, fwa and gi, indicating that EFS is an inhibitor of flowering specifically involved in the autonomous promotion pathway. A vernalisation treatment does not further reduce the flowering time of the efs mutant, suggesting that vernalisation promotes flowering through EFS. By comparing the length of the juvenile and adult phases of vegetative growth for wild-type, efs and the double mutant plants, it is apparent that efs mainly reduces the length of the adult phase.

scholarly journals Constitutive cyclic GMP accumulation in Arabidopsis thaliana compromises systemic acquired resistance induced by an avirulent pathogen by modulating local signals

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jamshaid Hussain ◽  
Jian Chen ◽  
Vittoria Locato ◽  
Wilma Sabetta ◽  
Smrutisanjita Behera ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Arabidopsis Thaliana ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Systemic Acquired Resistance ◽  
Soluble Guanylate Cyclase ◽  
Acquired Resistance ◽  
Plant Defence ◽  
Redox System ◽  
Wild Type ◽  
Transgenic Lines ◽  
Defence Responses

Abstract The infection of Arabidopsis thaliana plants with avirulent pathogens causes the accumulation of cGMP with a biphasic profile downstream of nitric oxide signalling. However, plant enzymes that modulate cGMP levels have yet to be identified, so we generated transgenic A. thaliana plants expressing the rat soluble guanylate cyclase (GC) to increase genetically the level of cGMP and to study the function of cGMP in plant defence responses. Once confirmed that cGMP levels were higher in the GC transgenic lines than in wild-type controls, the GC transgenic plants were then challenged with bacterial pathogens and their defence responses were characterized. Although local resistance was similar in the GC transgenic and wild-type lines, differences in the redox state suggested potential cross-talk between cGMP and the glutathione redox system. Furthermore, large-scale transcriptomic and proteomic analysis highlighted the significant modulation of both gene expression and protein abundance at the infection site, inhibiting the establishment of systemic acquired resistance. Our data indicate that cGMP plays a key role in local responses controlling the induction of systemic acquired resistance in plants challenged with avirulent pathogens.

scholarly journals Glucosinolate Distribution in the Aerial Parts of sel1-10, a Disruption Mutant of the Sulfate Transporter SULTR1;2, in Mature Arabidopsis thaliana Plants

Plants ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomomi Morikawa-Ichinose ◽  
Sun-Ju Kim ◽  
Alaa Allahham ◽  
Ryota Kawaguchi ◽  
Akiko Maruyama-Nakashita
Keyword(s):  
Arabidopsis Thaliana ◽  
Plant Defense ◽  
Essential Element ◽  
Wild Type ◽  
Sulfur Deficiency ◽  
Sulfate Transporter ◽  
Disruption Mutant ◽  
Aerial Parts ◽  
Long Day ◽  
Different Parts

Plants take up sulfur (S), an essential element for all organisms, as sulfate, which is mainly attributed to the function of SULTR1;2 in Arabidopsis. A disruption mutant of SULTR1;2, sel1-10, has been characterized with phenotypes similar to plants grown under sulfur deficiency (−S). Although the effects of −S on S metabolism were well investigated in seedlings, no studies have been performed on mature Arabidopsis plants. To study further the effects of −S on S metabolism, we analyzed the accumulation and distribution of S-containing compounds in different parts of mature sel1-10 and of the wild-type (WT) plants grown under long-day conditions. While the levels of sulfate, cysteine, and glutathione were almost similar between sel1-10 and WT, levels of glucosinolates (GSLs) differed between them depending on the parts of the plant. GSLs levels in the leaves and stems were generally lower in sel1-10 than those in WT. However, sel1-10 seeds maintained similar levels of aliphatic GSLs to those in WT plants. GSL accumulation in reproductive tissues is likely to be prioritized even when sulfate supply is limited in sel1-10 for its role in S storage and plant defense.

scholarly journals An Allelic Series of Blue Fluorescent trp1 Mutants of Arabidopsis thaliana

Genetics ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 145 (1) ◽  
pp. 197-205 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan B Rose ◽  
Jiayang Li ◽  
Robert L Last
Keyword(s):  
Arabidopsis Thaliana ◽  
Sequence Divergence ◽  
Single Copy ◽  
Flowering Plant ◽  
Wild Type ◽  
Allelic Series ◽  
Gene Encoding ◽  
Copy Gene ◽  
High Degree ◽  
Plant Arabidopsis Thaliana

Nine blue fluorescent mutants of the flowering plant Arabidopsis thaliana were isolated by genetic selections and fluorescence screens. Each was shown to contain a recessive allele of trp1, a previously described locus that encodes the tryptophan biosynthetic enzyme phosphoribosylanthranilate transferase (PAT, called trpD in bacteria). The trp1 mutants consist of two groups, tryptophan auxotrophs and prototrophs, that differ significantly in growth rate, morphology, and fertility. The trp1 alleles cause plants to accumulate varying amounts of blue fluorescent anthranilate compounds, and only the two least severely affected of the prototrophs have any detectable PAT enzyme activity. All four of the trp1 mutations that were sequenced are G to A or C to T transitions that cause an amino acid change, but in only three of these is the affected residue phylogenetically conserved. There is an unusually high degree of sequence divergence in the single-copy gene encoding PAT from the wild-type Columbia and Landsberg erecta ecotypes of Arabidopsis.

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