title: Encoding memory of winter by noncoding RNAs.
abstract: In some plant species, prolonged exposure to low temperature during the winter season is necessary to acquire the competence to flower in the following spring. This process, known as vernalization, is an epigenetic change in that a mitotically stable change of the developmental potential of the meristem (competence to flower) is maintained even in the absence of the inducing signal (prolonged cold exposure). In Arabidopsis, vernalization results in stable epigenetic repression of a potent floral repressor, FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC). Increased enrichment of Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 (PRC2) and trimethylated Histone H3 Lys 27 (H3K27me3) at FLC chromatin is necessary for the stable maintenance of FLC repression by vernalization. Recent recognition of long noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) in vernalization response indicates that long ncRNAs are evolutionarily conserved components for PRC2-mediated repression in eukaryotes.
authors.affiliation: Section of Molecular Cell and Developmental Biology and Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Jae Bok
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Heo
authors.forename: Sibum
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sung
mesh_terms: D000064:Acclimatization / Q000235:genetics*; D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D002843:Chromatin / Q000235:genetics; D003080:Cold Temperature; D044127:Epigenesis, Genetic; D035264:Flowers / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D006657:Histones / Q000235:genetics; D026161:MADS Domain Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D063146:Polycomb-Group Proteins; D022661:RNA, Untranslated / Q000235:genetics*; D012097:Repressor Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D012621:Seasons
chemical_list: D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins; D002843:Chromatin; C418902:At5g10140 protein, Arabidopsis; D006657:Histones; D026161:MADS Domain Proteins; D063146:Polycomb-Group Proteins; D022661:RNA, Untranslated; D012097:Repressor Proteins