EMF1, a novel protein involved in the control of shoot architecture and flowering in Arabidopsis.
Shoot architecture and flowering time in angiosperms depend on the balanced expression of a large number of flowering time and flower meristem identity genes. Loss-of-function mutations in the Arabidopsis EMBRYONIC FLOWER (EMF) genes cause Arabidopsis to eliminate rosette shoot growth and transform the apical meristem from indeterminate to determinate growth by producing a single terminal flower on all nodes. We have identified the EMF1 gene by positional cloning. The deduced polypeptide has no homology with any protein of known function except a putative protein in the rice genome with which EMF1 shares common motifs that include nuclear localization signals, P-loop, and LXXLL elements. Alteration of EMF1 expression in transgenic plants caused progressive changes in flowering time, shoot determinacy, and inflorescence architecture. EMF1 and its related sequence may belong to a new class of proteins that function as transcriptional regulators of phase transition during shoot development.
Aubert
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D
Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
Chen
L
L
Moon
Y H
YH
Martin
D
D
Castle
L A
LA
Yang
C H
CH
Sung
Z R
ZR
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development*; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D018076:DNA, Complementary; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D018520:Plant Shoots / Q000254:growth & development*; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D014158:Transcription, Genetic / Q000235:genetics
D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins; D018076:DNA, Complementary; C435921:EMF1 protein, Arabidopsis; D010940:Plant Proteins