title: Enabling photoperiodic control of flowering by timely chromatin silencing of the florigen gene.
abstract: Many plants synchronize their flowering times with changing seasons to maximize reproductive success. A key seasonal cue is the change in day length (photoperiod), that induces the production of a systemic flowering signaling molecule called florigen. A major florigen component is FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) or its orthologs. In the long-day plant Arabidopsis thaliana, FT expression is well known to be activated by the photoperiod pathway output specifically near dusk in long days; however, underappreciated is the importance of FT silencing at other times of the day, in enabling Arabidopsis to respond only to long days in flowering. We have recently reported that a plant-specific chromatin-silencing complex called EMF1c represses FT expression at times other than around dusk in long days to prevent its temporal ectopic expression from "spoiling" the long-day floral induction in Arabidopsis. Here I further discuss in other day-length sensitive plants the potential involvement of a chromatin mechanism similar to the Arabidopsis EMF1c-mediated silencing, in repressing the expression of FT orthologs to enable diverse photoperiodic control of flowering.
authors.affiliation: a Shanghai Center for Plant Stress Biology; Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences; Chinese Academy of Sciences ; Shanghai , China.
authors.forename: Yuehui
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: He
mesh_terms: D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism / Q000528:radiation effects*; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D002843:Chromatin / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D002868:Chromosomal Proteins, Non-Histone / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D060405:Florigen / Q000378:metabolism*; D035264:Flowers / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism / Q000528:radiation effects; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D020868:Gene Silencing; D018745:Genome, Plant; D006657:Histones / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D017440:Photoperiod; D063146:Polycomb-Group Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D013997:Time Factors; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins; C092776:CONSTANS protein, Arabidopsis; D002843:Chromatin; D002868:Chromosomal Proteins, Non-Histone; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; C435921:EMF1 protein, Arabidopsis; C418905:FT protein, Arabidopsis; D060405:Florigen; D006657:Histones; D063146:Polycomb-Group Proteins; D014157:Transcription Factors
keywords: CO, CONSTANS; EMF1, EMBRYONIC FLOWER 1; EMF1c; FT; FT, FLOWERING LOCUS T; H2Aub, Histone 2A monoubiquitination; H3K27me3, Histone 3 lysine-27 trimethylation; Histone 3 lysine-27 trimethylation; LHP1, LIKE HETEROCHROMATIN PROTEIN 1; NF-Y, nuclear factor Y; PRC1; PRC1, Polycomb repressive complex 1; PRC2, Polycomb repressive complex 2; PcG, Polycomb group; chromatin silencing; flowering time; photoperiod pathway