Temperature-sensitive splicing in the floral homeotic mutant apetala3-1.
The floral homeotic gene APETALA3 (AP3) is required for stamen and petal development in Arabidopsis. The previously described ap3-1 allele is temperature sensitive and carries a missense mutation near a 5' splice site. The missense mutation lies within a domain of the AP3 protein that is thought to be important for protein-protein interactions, which suggests that temperature sensitivity of ap3-1 could reflect an unstable interaction with cofactors. Here, we show instead that the ap3-1 mutation causes a temperature-dependent splicing defect and that temperature sensitivity is not a property of the protein products of ap3-1 but of RNA processing, possibly because of unstable base pairing between the transcript and small nuclear RNAs. The unexpected defect of the ap3-1 mutant offers unique opportunities for genetic and molecular studies of splice site recognition in plants.
Division of Biology 156-29, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA.
R W
RW
Sablowski
E M
EM
Meyerowitz
D017398:Alternative Splicing / Q000235:genetics; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism*; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins; D001483:Base Sequence; D017931:DNA Primers / Q000235:genetics; D018744:DNA, Plant / Q000235:genetics; D005801:Genes, Homeobox; D017343:Genes, Plant; D018398:Homeodomain Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D007438:Introns; D026161:MADS Domain Proteins; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009154:Mutation; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified; D012323:RNA Processing, Post-Transcriptional / Q000235:genetics; D012326:RNA Splicing / Q000235:genetics*; D018749:RNA, Plant / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013696:Temperature
C101342:APETALA 3 protein, Arabidopsis; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins; D017931:DNA Primers; D018744:DNA, Plant; D018398:Homeodomain Proteins; D026161:MADS Domain Proteins; D010940:Plant Proteins; D018749:RNA, Plant