title: The PHYTOCHROME C photoreceptor gene mediates natural variation in flowering and growth responses of Arabidopsis thaliana.
abstract: Light has an important role in modulating seedling growth and flowering time. We show that allelic variation at the PHYTOCHROME C (PHYC) photoreceptor locus affects both traits in natural populations of A. thaliana. Two functionally distinct PHYC haplotype groups are distributed in a latitudinal cline dependent on FRIGIDA, a locus that together with FLOWERING LOCUS C explains a large portion of the variation in A. thaliana flowering time. In a genome-wide scan for association of 65 loci with latitude, there was an excess of significant P values, indicative of population structure. Nevertheless, PHYC was the most strongly associated locus across 163 strains, suggesting that PHYC alleles are under diversifying selection in A. thaliana. Our work, together with previous findings, suggests that photoreceptor genes are major agents of natural variation in plant flowering and growth response.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology, Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, D-72076 Tübingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Sureshkumar
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Balasubramanian
authors.forename: Sridevi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sureshkumar
authors.forename: Mitesh
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Agrawal
authors.forename: Todd P
authors.initials: TP
authors.lastname: Michael
authors.forename: Carrie
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wessinger
authors.forename: Julin N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Maloof
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Clark
authors.forename: Norman
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Warthmann
authors.forename: Joanne
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chory
authors.forename: Detlef
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Weigel
mesh_terms: D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology*; D035264:Flowers; D014644:Genetic Variation; D018745:Genome, Plant; D006239:Haplotypes; D010802:Phylogeny; D010834:Phytochrome / Q000235:genetics*; D040641:Quantitative Trait Loci
chemical_list: D010834:Phytochrome