title: Splicing variation at a FLOWERING LOCUS C homeolog is associated with flowering time variation in the tetraploid Capsella bursa-pastoris.
abstract: The long-term fates of duplicate genes are well studied both empirically and theoretically, but how the short-term evolution of duplicate genes contributes to phenotypic variation is less well known. Here, we have studied the genetic basis of flowering time variation in the disomic tetraploid Capsella bursa-pastoris. We sequenced four duplicate candidate genes for flowering time and 10 background loci in samples from western Eurasia and China. Using a mixed-model approach that accounts for population structure, we found that polymorphisms at one homeolog of two candidate genes, FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC) and CRYPTOCHROME1 (CRY1), were associated with natural flowering time variation. No potentially causative polymorphisms were found in the coding region of CRY1; however, at FLC two splice site polymorphisms were associated with early flowering. Accessions harboring nonconsensus splice sites expressed an alternatively spliced transcript or did not express this FLC homeolog. Our results are consistent with the function of FLC as a major repressor of flowering in Arabidopsis thaliana and imply that nonfunctionalization of duplicate genes could provide an important source of phenotypic variation.
authors: Department of Evolution, Genomics and Systematics, Uppsala University, SE-752 36 Uppsala, Sweden. t.slotte@utoronto.ca
authors: Tanja
authors: T
authors: Slotte
authors: Hui-Run
authors: HR
authors: Huang
authors: Karl
authors: K
authors: Holm
authors: Alf
authors: A
authors: Ceplitis
authors: Kate St
authors: KS
authors: Onge
authors: Jun
authors: J
authors: Chen
authors: Ulf
authors: U
authors: Lagercrantz
authors: Martin
authors: M
authors: Lascoux
mesh_terms: D017398:Alternative Splicing / Q000235:genetics*; D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D029687:Capsella / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development; D056931:Cryptochromes / Q000235:genetics; D035264:Flowers / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development*; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D017343:Genes, Plant; D014644:Genetic Variation / Q000502:physiology; D005843:Geography; D026161:MADS Domain Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011123:Polyploidy; D017385:Sequence Homology; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins; C538962:CRY1 protein, Arabidopsis; D056931:Cryptochromes; C418902:At5g10140 protein, Arabidopsis; D026161:MADS Domain Proteins