The transcription factor FLC confers a flowering response to vernalization by repressing meristem competence and systemic signaling in Arabidopsis.

By I. Searle, Yuehui He, F. Turck, C. Vincent, F. Fornara, S. Kröber, Richard A. Amasino, G. Coupland. Genes & Development, 2006

883 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Floral development at the Arabidopsis shoot apical meristem occurs in response to environmental cues that are perceived in different tissues. Photoperiod is detected in the vascular tissue of the leaf (phloem) and promotes production of a systemic signal that induces flowering at the meristem. Vernalization, the response to winter temperatures, overcomes a block on photoperiodic floral induction. In Arabidopsis, this block is caused by inhibitors of flowering that comprise several related MADS-box transcription factors, the most prominent of which is FLC. We show that FLC delays flowering by repressing production in the leaf of at least two systemic signals, one of which is controlled by the RAF kinase inhibitor-like protein FT. Reducing expression of these signals indirectly represses expression of genes involved in floral induction at the meristem. In addition, FLC expression in the meristem impairs response to the FT signal by directly repressing expression of the SOC1 MADS-box transcription factor and preventing up-regulation of the bZIP transcription factor FD. Repression of genes acting at multiple levels in this hierarchy is required for the extreme delay in flowering caused by FLC. An FLC:HA fusion protein binds directly in vivo to the promoter regions of FD and SOC1 and to the first intron of FT. Thus vernalization relieves transcriptional repression of key regulatory genes in both the leaf and meristem, allowing production of systemic signals in the leaves and conferring competence on the meristem to respond to these signals.

Subfields: Molecular Biology, Plant Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/712e95befcbdb761b26fae21b4bfc7aea347c3e3

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In Molecular Biology

1. R. Amasino
2. G. Coupland
3. M. Schmid
4. F. Fornara
5. F. Turck
6. C. Dean
7. Anusha Srikanth
8. I. Bäurle

In Plant Science

1. R. Amasino
2. G. Coupland
3. M. Schmid
4. F. Fornara
5. F. Turck
6. C. Dean
7. Anusha Srikanth
8. I. Bäurle

Citations in the corpus

• miR156-regulated SPL transcription factors define an endogenous flowering pathway in Arabidopsis thaliana. (2009, neutral): “Thus, although the shoot apex has a higher requirement for SPL activity than does the phloem, SPL genes act at both sites, similar to SOC1 and FLC (Searle et al., 2006). pFD:rSPL3 ft -10 plants were intermediate between the parents, but the ft -10 mutation suppressed the effects of rSPL3 expression ”
• Seasonal and developmental timing of flowering. (2010, background): “FLC suppresses flowering, at least in part, by repressing the expression of the floral activators SOC1, FT and FD (Figure 2): FLC has been shown to bind directly to these activators (Hepworth et al., 2002; Helliwell et al., 2006; Searle et al., 2006).”
• Role of SVP in the control of flowering time by ambient temperature in Arabidopsis. (2007, background): “4) may represent a mechanism used by the plant to adjust the timing of flower development under fluctuating temperature conditions, although we cannot dismiss the possibility that altered interactions between MADS-box proteins, including SVP, FLC, and FLM (de Folter et al. 2005; Balasubramanian et a”
• Comprehending crystalline β-carotene accumulation by comparing engineered cell models and the natural carotenoid-rich system of citrus (2011, neutral): “FLC serves to directly repress downstream floral integrators, FT, and SOC1, thus preventing floral transition (Helliwell et al., 2006; Searle et al., 2006).”
• Regulation of flowering time: all roads lead to Rome (2011, background): “FLC encodes a MADS box protein that acts to directly repress certain flowering time genes [86, 89, 90].”
• The timing of developmental transitions in plants. (2006, background): “Expressing FLC from either a phloem- or a shoot apical meristem-specific promoter has now established that FLC expression is required in both tissues for the full repression of flowering (Searle et al., 2006).”
• Arabidopsis TFL2/LHP1 Specifically Associates with Genes Marked by Trimethylation of Histone H3 Lysine 27 (2007, neutral): “locus resulted in a well-defined and specific enrichment over the first intron, as reported previously [”
• CONSTANS and the CCAAT Box Binding Complex Share a Functionally Important Domain and Interact to Regulate Flowering of Arabidopsis[W][OA] (2006, methodology): “Protein extraction and ChIP assays were performed as described (Searle et al., 2006).”
• Regulation and identity of florigen: FLOWERING LOCUS T moves center stage. (2008, background): “16 h after a shift from SD to LD and prior to macroscopic changes at the meristem (12, 80) (Figure 4).”