scholarly journals NUCLEAR FACTOR Y, subunit A (NF-YA) proteins positively regulate flowering and act through FLOWERING LOCUS T

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chamindika L. Siriwardana ◽  
Nerina Gnesutta ◽  
Roderick W. Kumimoto ◽  
Daniel S. Jones ◽  
Zachary A. Myers ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Success ◽  
Plant Species ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Day Length ◽  
Dependent Manner ◽  
Nuclear Factor ◽  
Flowering Locus T ◽  
Nuclear Factor Y ◽  
Timing Mechanisms ◽  
Flowering Locus

AbstractPhotoperiod dependent flowering is one of several mechanisms used by plants to initiate the developmental transition from vegetative growth to reproductive growth. The NUCLEAR FACTOR Y (NF-Y) transcription factors are heterotrimeric complexes composed of NF-YA and histone-fold domain (HFD) containing NF-YB/NF-YC, that initiate photoperiod-dependent flowering by cooperatively interacting with CONSTANS (CO) to drive the expression of FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT). This involves NF-Y and CO binding at distal CCAAT and proximal “CORE” elements, respectively, in the FT promoter. While this is well established for the HFD subunits, there remains some question over the potential role of NF-YA as either positive or negative regulators of this process. Here we provide strong support, in the form of genetic and biochemical analyses, that NF-YA, in complex with NF-YB/NF-YC proteins, can directly bind the distal CCAAT box in the FT promoter and are positive regulators of flowering in an FT-dependent manner.Author SummaryFor plants to have reproductive success, they must time their flowering with the most beneficial biotic and abiotic environmental conditions - after all, reproductive success would likely be low if flowers developed when pollinators were not present or freezing temperatures were on the horizon. Proper timing mechanisms for flowering vary significantly between different species, but can be connected to a variety of environmental cues, including water availability, temperature, and day length. Numerous labs have studied the molecular aspects of these timing mechanisms and discovered that many of these pathways converge on the gene FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT). This means that understanding precisely how this gene is regulated can teach us a lot about many plant species in both natural and agricultural settings. In the current study, we focus on day length as an essential cue for flowering in the plant species Arabidopsis thaliana. We further unravel the complexity of FT regulation by clarifying the roles of NUCLEAR FACTOR Y genes in day length perception.

scholarly journals A Distal CCAAT/NUCLEAR FACTOR Y Complex Promotes Chromatin Looping at the FLOWERING LOCUS T Promoter and Regulates the Timing of Flowering in Arabidopsis

2014 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 1009-1017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuanghe Cao ◽  
Roderick W. Kumimoto ◽  
Nerina Gnesutta ◽  
Alessandra M. Calogero ◽  
Roberto Mantovani ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Factor ◽  
Flowering Locus T ◽  
Nuclear Factor Y ◽  
Chromatin Looping ◽  
Flowering Locus

scholarly journals NUCLEAR FACTOR Y, Subunit A (NF-YA) Proteins Positively Regulate Flowering and Act Through FLOWERING LOCUS T

PLoS Genetics ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. e1006496 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chamindika L. Siriwardana ◽  
Nerina Gnesutta ◽  
Roderick W. Kumimoto ◽  
Daniel S. Jones ◽  
Zachary A. Myers ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Factor ◽  
Flowering Locus T ◽  
Subunit A ◽  
Nuclear Factor Y ◽  
Flowering Locus

scholarly journals Expression of coffee florigen CaFT1 reveals a sustained floral induction window associated with asynchronous flowering in tropical perennials

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Henrique Cardon ◽  
Raphael Ricon de Oliveira ◽  
Victoria Lesy ◽  
Thales Henrique Cherubino Ribeiro ◽  
Luisa Peloso Pereira ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Floral Induction ◽  
Day Length ◽  
Yeast Two Hybrid ◽  
Flowering Locus T ◽  
Temperature Changes ◽  
Regulatory Pathways ◽  
The Face ◽  
Flowering Locus ◽  
One Year ◽  
Two Hybrid

The behavior of florigen(s) and environment-influenced regulatory pathways that control flowering in tropical perennials with complex phenological cycles is poorly understood. Understanding the mechanisms underlying this process is important for food production in the face of climate change. To explore this, homologs of Arabidopsis florigen FLOWERING LOCUS T (CaFT1) and environment-related regulators CONSTANS (CO), PHYTOCHROME INTERACTING FACTOR 4 (PIF4) and FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC) were isolated from Coffea sp. L. (Rubiaceae). Overexpression of CaFT1 in Arabidopsis showed typical early-flowering and yeast two hybrid studies indicated CaFT1 binding to bZIP floral regulator, FD, demonstrates that CaFT1 is a coffee orthologue of florigen. Expression of CaFT1 and floral regulators were evaluated over one year using three contrasting genotypes: two C. arabica and one C. canephora. All genotypes showed active CaFT1 transcription from February until October, indicating a potential window for floral induction. CaCO expression, as expected, varied over the day period and monthly with day length, whereas expression of temperature-responsive homologs, CaFLC and CaPIF4, did not correlate with temperature changes. Using coffee as a model, we suggest a continuum of floral induction that allows different starting points for floral activation, which explains developmental asynchronicity and prolonged anthesis events in tropical perennial species.

scholarly journals PRMT6 physically associates with nuclear factor Y to regulate photoperiodic flowering in Arabidopsis

aBIOTECH ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pingxian Zhang ◽  
Xiulan Li ◽  
Yifan Wang ◽  
Weijun Guo ◽  
Sadaruddin Chachar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Flowering Time ◽  
Underlying Mechanism ◽  
Arginine Methylation ◽  
Day Length ◽  
Protein Arginine Methyltransferases ◽  
Nuclear Factor Y ◽  
Photoperiodic Flowering ◽  
Nuclear Factors ◽  
Positive Regulators ◽  
Flowering Locus

AbstractThe timing of floral transition is critical for reproductive success in flowering plants. In long-day (LD) plant Arabidopsis, the floral regulator gene FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) is a major component of the mobile florigen. FT expression is rhythmically activated by CONSTANS (CO), and specifically accumulated at dusk of LDs. However, the underlying mechanism of adequate regulation of FT transcription in response to day-length cues to warrant flowering time still remains to be investigated. Here, we identify a homolog of human protein arginine methyltransferases 6 (HsPRMT6) in Arabidopsis, and confirm AtPRMT6 physically interacts with three positive regulators of flowering Nuclear Factors YC3 (NF-YC3), NF-YC9, and NF-YB3. Further investigations find that AtPRMT6 and its encoding protein accumulate at dusk of LDs. PRMT6-mediated H3R2me2a modification enhances the promotion of NF-YCs on FT transcription in response to inductive LD signals. Moreover, AtPRMT6 and its homologues proteins AtPRMT4a and AtPRMT4b coordinately inhibit the expression of FLOWERING LOCUS C, a suppressor of FT. Taken together, our study reveals the role of arginine methylation in photoperiodic pathway and how the PRMT6-mediating H3R2me2a system interacts with NF-CO module to dynamically control FT expression and facilitate flowering time.

scholarly journals Identification, Structural Characterization and Gene Expression Analysis of Members of the Nuclear Factor-Y Family in Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) under Dehydration and Abscisic Acid Treatments

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (11) ◽  
pp. 3290 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ha Chu ◽  
Kien Nguyen ◽  
Yasuko Watanabe ◽  
Dung Le ◽  
Thu Pham ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Abscisic Acid ◽  
In Silico ◽  
Major Gene ◽  
Expression Patterns ◽  
Dependent Manner ◽  
Nuclear Factor ◽  
Nuclear Factor Y ◽  
Fundamental Information ◽  
Close Relationship ◽  
In Silico Analyses

In plants, the Nuclear Factor-Y (NF-Y) transcription factors (TFs), which include three distinct types of NF-YA, NF-YB, and NF-YC TFs, have been identified to play key roles in the regulation of various plant growth and developmental processes under both normal and environmental stress conditions. In this work, a total of 40 CaNF-Y-encoding genes, including eight CaNF-YAs, 21 CaNF-YBs, and 11 CaNF-YCs, were identified in chickpea, and their major gene and protein characteristics were subsequently obtained using various web-based tools. Of our interest, a phylogenetically-based analysis predicted 18 CaNF-Ys (eight CaNF-YAs, seven CaNF-YBs, and three CaNF-YCs) that potentially play roles in chickpea responses to dehydration according to their close relationship with the well-characterized GmNF-Ys in soybean. These results were in good agreement with the enrichment of drought-responsive cis-regulatory motifs and expression patterns obtained from in silico analyses using publically available transcriptome data. Most of the phylogenetically predicted drought-responsive CaNF-Y genes (15 of 18) were quantitatively validated to significantly respond to dehydration treatment in leaves and/or roots, further supporting the results of in silico analyses. Among these CaNF-Y genes, the transcript levels of CaNF-YA01 and CaNF-YC10 were the most highly accumulated in leaves (by approximately eight-fold) and roots (by approximately 18-fold), respectively, by dehydration. Furthermore, 12 of the 18 CaNF-Y genes were found to be responsive to the most well-known stress hormone, namely abscisic acid (ABA), in leaves and/or roots, suggesting that these genes may act in chickpea response to dehydration in ABA-dependent manner. Taken together, our study has provided a comprehensive and fundamental information for further functional analyses of selected CaNF-Y candidate genes, ultimately leading to the improvement of chickpea growth under water-limited conditions.

scholarly journals An explanatory model of temperature influence on flowering through whole-plant accumulation of FLOWERING LOCUS T in Arabidopsis thaliana

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannah A Kinmonth-Schultz ◽  
Melissa J S MacEwen ◽  
Daniel D Seaton ◽  
Andrew J Millar ◽  
Takato Imaizumi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Temperature Regulation ◽  
Leaf Growth ◽  
Day Length ◽  
Temperature Influence ◽  
Flowering Locus T ◽  
Leaf Production ◽  
Whole Plant ◽  
Improve Model ◽  
Flowering Locus ◽  
Flowering Regulator

Abstract We assessed mechanistic temperature influence on flowering by incorporating temperature-responsive flowering mechanisms across developmental age into an existing model. Temperature influences the leaf production rate as well as expression of FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT), a photoperiodic flowering regulator that is expressed in leaves. The Arabidopsis Framework Model incorporated temperature influence on leaf growth but ignored the consequences of leaf growth on and direct temperature influence of FT expression. We measured FT production in differently aged leaves and modified the model, adding mechanistic temperature influence on FT transcription, and causing whole-plant FT to accumulate with leaf growth. Our simulations suggest that in long days, the developmental stage (leaf number) at which the reproductive transition occurs is influenced by day length and temperature through FT, while temperature influences the rate of leaf production and the time (in days) the transition occurs. Further, we demonstrate that FT is mainly produced in the first 10 leaves in the Columbia (Col-0) accession, and that FT accumulation alone cannot explain flowering in conditions in which flowering is delayed. Our simulations supported our hypotheses that: (i) temperature regulation of FT, accumulated with leaf growth, is a component of thermal time, and (ii) incorporating mechanistic temperature regulation of FT can improve model predictions when temperatures change over time.

scholarly journals Diversification in Functions and Expressions of Soybean FLOWERING LOCUS T Genes Fine-Tunes Seasonal Flowering

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Su Hyeon Lee ◽  
Cheol Woo Choi ◽  
Kyoung Mi Park ◽  
Wook-Hun Jung ◽  
Hyun Jin Chun ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Crop Yields ◽  
Day Length ◽  
Mrna Levels ◽  
Flowering Locus T ◽  
Opposite Pattern ◽  
Seasonal Flowering ◽  
Flowering Locus ◽  
Delayed Flowering ◽  
Soybean Leaves

The proper timing of flowering in response to environmental changes is critical for ensuring crop yields. FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) homologs of the phosphatidylethanolamine-binding protein family play important roles as floral integrators in many crops. In soybean, we identified 17 genes of this family, and characterized biological functions in flowering for ten FT homologs. Overexpression of GmFT homologs in Arabidopsis revealed that a set of GmFT homologs, including GmFT2a/2b, GmFT3a/3b, and GmFT5a/5b, promoted flowering similar to FT; in contrast, GmFT1a/1b, GmFT4, and GmFT6 delayed flowering. Consistently, expressions of GmFT2a, GmFT2b, and GmFT5a were induced in soybean leaves in response to floral inductive short days, whereas expressions of GmFT1a and GmFT4 were induced in response to long days. Exon swapping analysis between floral activator GmFT2a and floral repressor GmFT4 revealed that the segment B region in the fourth exon is critical for their antagonistic functions. Finally, expression analysis of GmFT2a, GmFT5a, and GmFT4 in soybean accessions exhibiting various flowering times indicated that the mRNA levels of GmFT2a and GmFT5a were higher in early flowering accessions than in late-flowering accessions, while GmFT4 showed the opposite pattern. Moreover, the relative mRNA levels between GmFT2a/GmFT5a and GmFT4 was important in determining day length-dependent flowering in soybean accessions. Taken together, our results suggest that the functions of GmFT homologs have diversified into floral activators and floral repressors during soybean evolution, and the timing of flowering in response to changing day length is determined by modulating the activities of antagonistic GmFT homologs.

scholarly journals TERMINAL FLOWER 1-FD complex target genes and competition with FLOWERING LOCUS T

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yang Zhu ◽  
Samantha Klasfeld ◽  
Cheol Woong Jeong ◽  
Run Jin ◽  
Koji Goto ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Success ◽  
Target Genes ◽  
Bzip Transcription Factor ◽  
Inflorescence Architecture ◽  
Flowering Locus T ◽  
Terminal Flower ◽  
Terminal Flower 1 ◽  
Flowering Locus ◽  
Complex Target

Abstract Plants monitor seasonal cues to optimize reproductive success by tuning onset of reproduction and inflorescence architecture. TERMINAL FLOWER 1 (TFL1) and FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) and their orthologs antagonistically regulate these life history traits, yet their mechanism of action, antagonism and targets remain poorly understood. Here, we show that TFL1 is recruited to thousands of loci by the bZIP transcription factor FD. We identify the master regulator of floral fate, LEAFY (LFY) as a target under dual opposite regulation by TFL1 and FT and uncover a pivotal role of FT in promoting flower fate via LFY upregulation. We provide evidence that the antagonism between FT and TFL1 relies on competition for chromatin-bound FD at shared target loci. Direct TFL1-FD regulated target genes identify this complex as a hub for repressing both master regulators of reproductive development and endogenous signalling pathways. Our data provide mechanistic insight into how TFL1-FD sculpt inflorescence architecture, a trait important for reproductive success, plant architecture and yield.

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