Divergent roles of a pair of homologous jumonji/zinc-finger-class transcription factor proteins in the regulation of Arabidopsis flowering time.
Flowering in Arabidopsis thaliana is controlled by multiple pathways, including the photoperiod pathway and the FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC)-dependent pathway. Here, we report that a pair of related jumonji-class transcription factors, EARLY FLOWERING 6 (ELF6) and RELATIVE OF EARLY FLOWERING 6 (REF6), play divergent roles in the regulation of Arabidopsis flowering. ELF6 acts as a repressor in the photoperiod pathway, whereas REF6, which has the highest similarity to ELF6, is an FLC repressor. Ectopic expression studies and expression pattern analyses show that ELF6 and REF6 have different cellular roles and are also regulated differentially despite their sequence similarities. Repression of FLC expression by REF6 accompanies histone modifications in FLC chromatin, indicating that the transcriptional regulatory activity of this class of proteins includes chromatin remodeling. This report demonstrates the in vivo functions of this class of proteins in higher eukaryotes.
Noh
Bosl
B
Kumho Life and Environmental Science Laboratory, Puk-Gu, Kwangju 500-712, Korea. noh@kkpc.com <noh@kkpc.com>
Lee
Seung-Hee
SH
Kim
Hyun-Jin
HJ
Yi
Gibum
G
Shin
Eun-Ah
EA
Lee
Mirha
M
Jung
Kyung-Ja
KJ
Doyle
Mark R
MR
Amasino
Richard M
RM
Noh
Yoo-Sun
YS
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000502:physiology*; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D001483:Base Sequence; D017931:DNA Primers; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009154:Mutation; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D014158:Transcription, Genetic / Q000235:genetics
D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins; D017931:DNA Primers; D014157:Transcription Factors