NUCLEAR FACTOR Y, Subunit C

• Published in: PLoS genetics Vol. 12; no. 9
• Main Authors: Myers, Zachary A, Kumimoto, Roderick W, Siriwardana, Chamindika L, Gayler, Krystal K, Risinger, Jan R, Pezzetta, Daniela, Holt III, Ben F
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Public Library of Science 29.09.2016
• Subjects: Arabidopsis thaliana; Botanical research; Genetic aspects; Genetic regulation; Genetic research; Photomorphogenesis; Physiological aspects; Transcription factors
• ISSN: 1553-7390; 1553-7404
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1006333

Recent reports suggest that NF-Y transcription factors are positive regulators of skotomorphogenesis in Arabidopsis thaliana. Three NF-YC genes (NF-YC3, NF-YC4, and NF-YC9) are known to have overlapping functions in photoperiod dependent flowering and previous studies demonstrated that they interact with basic leucine zipper (bZIP) transcription factors. This included ELONGATED HYPOCOTYL 5 (HY5), which has well-demonstrated roles in photomorphogenesis. Similar to hy5 mutants, we report that nf-yc3 nf-yc4 nf-yc9 triple mutants failed to inhibit hypocotyl elongation in all tested light wavelengths. Surprisingly, nf-yc3 nf-yc4 nf-yc9 hy5 mutants had synergistic defects in light perception, suggesting that NF-Ys represent a parallel light signaling pathway. As with other photomorphogenic transcription factors, nf-yc3 nf-yc4 nf-yc9 triple mutants also partially suppressed the short hypocotyl and dwarf rosette phenotypes of CONSTITUTIVE PHOTOMORPHOGENIC 1 (cop1) mutants. Thus, our data strongly suggest that NF-Y transcription factors have important roles as positive regulators of photomorphogenesis, and in conjunction with other recent reports, implies that the NF-Y are multifaceted regulators of early seedling development.