Additional targets of the Arabidopsis autonomous pathway members, FCA and FY

• Published in: Journal of experimental botany Vol. 57; no. 13; pp. 3379 - 3386
• Main Authors: Marquardt, S, Boss, PK, Hadfield, J, Dean, C
• Format: Journal Article Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Oxford University Press 01.01.2006; Oxford Publishing Limited (England)
• Subjects: Alleles; Arabidopsis; Arabidopsis - genetics; Arabidopsis - growth & development; Arabidopsis - metabolism; Arabidopsis Proteins - genetics; Arabidopsis Proteins - metabolism; Arabidopsis Proteins - physiology; Arabidopsis thaliana; autonomous promotion pathway; biochemical pathways; Biological and medical sciences; developmental stages; Environmental Perception; FCA; FLC; floral transition; Flowering; flowering locus C; flowering time; Flowers - genetics; Flowers - growth & development; Flowers - metabolism; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Gene expression regulation; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; Genes; Genes. Genome; Genetic loci; literature reviews; meristems; messenger RNA; microarray; microarray technology; Models, Genetic; Molecular and cellular biology; Molecular genetics; molecular sequence data; mRNA Cleavage and Polyadenylation Factors - genetics; mRNA Cleavage and Polyadenylation Factors - metabolism; mRNA Cleavage and Polyadenylation Factors - physiology; mutants; Mutation; Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; phenology; phenotype; Phenotypes; Plant cells; plant development; Plant genetics; Plants; Polyadenylation; promoter regions; protein synthesis; RNA processing; RNA Processing, Post-Transcriptional; RNA, Messenger - metabolism; RNA-Binding Proteins - genetics; RNA-Binding Proteins - metabolism; RNA-Binding Proteins - physiology; transcription factors; Vernalization; polyadenylation; Arabidopsis; FCA; microarray; FY; Cruciferae; flowering time; Dicotyledones; Vernalization; Angiospermae; autonomous promotion pathway; Flowering; Spermatophyta; FLC; RNA processing
• ISSN: 0022-0957; 1460-2431
• DOI: 10.1093/jxb/erl073

A central player in the Arabidopsis floral transition is the floral repressor FLC, the MADS-box transcriptional regulator that inhibits the activity of genes required to switch the meristem from vegetative to floral development. One of the many pathways that regulate FLC expression is the autonomous promotion pathway composed of FCA, FY, FLD, FPA, FVE, LD, and FLK. Rather than a hierarchical set of activities the autonomous promotion pathway comprises sub-pathways of genes with different biochemical functions that all share FLC as a target. One sub-pathway involves FCA and FY, which interact to regulate RNA processing of FLC. Several of the identified components (FY, FVE, and FLD) are homologous to yeast and mammalian proteins with rather generic roles in gene regulation. So why do mutations in these genes specifically show a late-flowering phenotype in Arabidopsis? One reason, found during the analysis of fy alleles, is that the mutant alleles identified in flowering screens can be hypomorphic, they still have partial function. A broader role for the autonomous promotion pathway is supported by a microarray analysis which has identified genes mis-regulated in fca mutants, and whose expression is also altered in fy mutants.