Project description:How plants control the transition to flowering in response to ambient temperature is only beginning to be understood. In Arabidopsis thaliana, the MADS-box transcription factor genes FLOWERING LOCUS M (FLM) and SHORT VEGETATIVE PHASE (SVP) have key roles in this process. FLM is subject to temperature-dependent alternative splicing, producing two splice variants, FLM-M-NM-2 and FLM-M-NM-4, which compete for interaction with the floral repressor SVP. The SVP/FLM-M-NM-2 complex is predominately formed at low temperatures and prevents precocious flowering. In contrast, the competing SVP FLM-M-NM-4 complex is impaired in DNA binding and acts as a dominant negative activator of flowering at higher temperatures. Our results demonstrate the importance of temperature-dependent alternative splicing in modulating the timing of the floral transition in response to environmental change. ChIP-seq A. thaliana FLM (3 replicates for gFLM and 2 replicates for FLM splice variants)
Project description:How plants control the transition to flowering in response to ambient temperature is only beginning to be understood. In Arabidopsis thaliana, the MADS-box transcription factor genes FLOWERING LOCUS M (FLM) and SHORT VEGETATIVE PHASE (SVP) have key roles in this process. FLM is subject to temperature-dependent alternative splicing, producing two splice variants, FLM-β and FLM-δ, which compete for interaction with the floral repressor SVP. The SVP/FLM-β complex is predominately formed at low temperatures and prevents precocious flowering. In contrast, the competing SVP FLM-δ complex is impaired in DNA binding and acts as a dominant negative activator of flowering at higher temperatures. Our results demonstrate the importance of temperature-dependent alternative splicing in modulating the timing of the floral transition in response to environmental change.
Project description:RNA-seq analysis of Pseudomonas sp OST1909 exposed to various preparations of naphthenic acids samples led to the identiifcation of many NA-induced genes.
Project description:Ambient temperature dependent flowering time is an important feature that is required for plants to reproduce in various environmental conditions. The rising global temperature poses a significant challenge to the growth and reproduction of plants. In Arabidopsis thaliana, FLM-β, a major splicing isoform of the flowering repressor gene FLOWERING LOCUS M, is down-regulated in response to increasing temperature and represents a critical mechanism for plants to respond to temperature changes. However, it is unknown how the transcript level of FLM-β is down-regulated. Here we identify an RRM domain-containing protein, UBA2C, as a previously uncharacterized flowering repressor by forward genetic screening. We demonstrate that UBA2C directly binds to FLM chromatin and facilitates FLM transcription predominantly by inhibiting the histone H3K27 trimethylation, a histone mark related to transcriptional repression. At FLM chromatin, the histone H3K27 trimethylation is enhanced in response to increasing temperatures. Depletion of UBA2C weakens the response of FLM transcription and H3K27 trimethylation to temperature changes. UBA2C forms multiple puncta in the nucleus and the number of puncta increases with increasing temperatures. UBA2C contains a prion-like domain (PrLD) that is responsible for forming puncta in the nucleus in vivo. These results not only identify a previously unknown flowering-time regulator but also reveal the mechanism by which the regulator controls flowering time in response to temperature changes.