scholarly journals The molecular mechanism of vernalization in Arabidopsis and cereals: role of Flowering Locus C and its homologs

2020 ◽  
Vol 170 (3) ◽  
pp. 373-383
Author(s):  
Neha Sharma ◽  
Koen Geuten ◽  
Balendu Shekhar Giri ◽  
Ajit Varma
2005 ◽  
Vol 138 (2) ◽  
pp. 1163-1173 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chikako Shindo ◽  
Maria Jose Aranzana ◽  
Clare Lister ◽  
Catherine Baxter ◽  
Colin Nicholls ◽  
...  

2000 ◽  
Vol 97 (7) ◽  
pp. 3753-3758 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. C. Sheldon ◽  
D. T. Rouse ◽  
E. J. Finnegan ◽  
W. J. Peacock ◽  
E. S. Dennis

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice Kennedy ◽  
Koen Geuten

FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC) is one of the best characterized genes in plant research and is integral to vernalization-dependent flowering time regulation. Yet, despite the abundance of information on this gene and its relatives in Arabidopsis thaliana, the role FLC genes play in other species, in particular cereal crops and temperate grasses, remains elusive. This has been due in part to the comparative reduced availability of bioinformatic and mutant resources in cereals but also on the dominant effect in cereals of the VERNALIZATION (VRN) genes on the developmental process most associated with FLC in Arabidopsis. The strong effect of the VRN genes has led researchers to believe that the entire process of vernalization must have evolved separately in Arabidopsis and cereals. Yet, since the confirmation of the existence of FLC-like genes in monocots, new light has been shed on the roles these genes play in both vernalization and other mechanisms to fine tune development in response to specific environmental conditions. Comparisons of FLC gene function and their genetic and epigenetic regulation can now be made between Arabidopsis and cereals and how they overlap and diversify is coming into focus. With the advancement of genome editing techniques, further study on these genes is becoming increasingly easier, enabling us to investigate just how essential FLC-like genes are to modulating flowering time behavior in cereals.


2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoyan Wang ◽  
Xintong Xu ◽  
Xiaowei Mo ◽  
Luyao Zhong ◽  
Jiancong Zhang ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Flowering is a key process in the life cycle of plants. The transition from vegetative to reproductive growth is thus under sophisticated regulation by endogenous and environmental signals. The plant-specific Teosinte Branched 1/Cycloidea/Proliferating Cell Factors (TCP) family transcription factors are involved in many biological processes, but their roles in regulating flowering have not been totally elucidated. Results We explored the role of Arabidopsis TCP8 in plant development and, especially, in flowering control. Overexpression of TCP8 significantly delayed flowering under both long-day and short-day conditions and dominant repression by TCP8 led to various growth defects. The upregulation of TCP8 led to more accumulated mRNA level of FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC), a central floral repressor of Arabidopsis. TCP8 functions in an FLC-dependent manner, as TCP8 overexpression in the flc-6 loss-of-function mutant failed to delay flowering. The vernalization treatment could reverse the late flowering phenotype caused by TCP8 overexpression. Conclusions Our results provide evidence for a role of TCP8 in flowering control and add to our knowledge of the molecular basis of TCP8 function.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wim J. J. Soppe ◽  
Natanael Viñegra de la Torre ◽  
Maria C. Albani

Most temperate species require prolonged exposure to winter chilling temperatures to flower in the spring. In the Brassicaceae, the MADS box transcription factor FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC) is a major regulator of flowering in response to prolonged cold exposure, a process called vernalization. Winter annual Arabidopsis thaliana accessions initiate flowering in the spring due to the stable silencing of FLC by vernalization. The role of FLC has also been explored in perennials within the Brassicaceae family, such as Arabis alpina. The flowering pattern in A. alpina differs from the one in A. thaliana. A. alpina plants initiate flower buds during vernalization but only flower after subsequent exposure to growth-promoting conditions. Here we discuss the role of FLC in annual and perennial Brassicaceae species. We show that, besides its conserved role in flowering, FLC has acquired additional functions that contribute to vegetative and seed traits. PERPETUAL FLOWERING 1 (PEP1), the A. alpina FLC ortholog, contributes to the perennial growth habit. We discuss that PEP1 directly and indirectly, regulates traits such as the duration of the flowering episode, polycarpic growth habit and shoot architecture. We suggest that these additional roles of PEP1 are facilitated by (1) the ability of A. alpina plants to form flower buds during long-term cold exposure, (2) age-related differences between meristems, which enable that not all meristems initiate flowering during cold exposure, and (3) differences between meristems in stable silencing of PEP1 after long-term cold, which ensure that PEP1 expression levels will remain low after vernalization only in meristems that commit to flowering during cold exposure. These features result in spatiotemporal seasonal changes of PEP1 expression during the A. alpina life cycle that contribute to the perennial growth habit. FLC and PEP1 have also been shown to influence the timing of another developmental transition in the plant, seed germination, by influencing seed dormancy and longevity. This suggests that during evolution, FLC and its orthologs adopted both similar and divergent roles to regulate life history traits. Spatiotemporal changes of FLC transcript accumulation drive developmental decisions and contribute to life history evolution.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonali Bhakta ◽  
Toshifumi Tsukahara

Editing mutated genes is a potential way for the treatment of genetic diseases. G-to-A mutations are common in mammals and can be treated by adenosine-to-inosine (A-to-I) editing, a type of substitutional RNA editing. The molecular mechanism of A-to-I editing involves the hydrolytic deamination of adenosine to an inosine base; this reaction is mediated by RNA-specific deaminases, adenosine deaminases acting on RNA (ADARs), family protein. Here, we review recent findings regarding the application of ADARs to restoring the genetic code along with different approaches involved in the process of artificial RNA editing by ADAR. We have also addressed comparative studies of various isoforms of ADARs. Therefore, we will try to provide a detailed overview of the artificial RNA editing and the role of ADAR with a focus on the enzymatic site directed A-to-I editing.


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