title: APRF1 promotes flowering under long days in Arabidopsis thaliana.
abstract: Arabidopsis thaliana flowering time mutants revealed the function of numerous genes that regulate the transition from vegetative to reproductive growth. Analyses of their loci have shown that many of them act as chromatin modifiers. In this study, a combination of molecular and genetic approaches have been implemented, to characterize the function of APRF1 (ANTHESIS POMOTING FACTOR 1) gene in A. thaliana and to investigate its role in plant development. APRF1 encodes for a low molecular weight nuclear WDR protein which displays functional homology to the Swd2 protein, an essential subunit of the yeast histone methylation COMPASS complex. Compared to WT plants, total loss-of-function aprf1 mutants exhibited shoot apical meristem (SAM) alterations and increased growth rates. However, the vegetative phase of aprf1 plants was prolonged and bolting was delayed, indicating an impairment in flowering under long days (LD). On the contrary, overexpression of APRF1 accelerates flowering. Consistent with the late flowering phenotype, the molecular data confirmed that FLC and SOC1 expression were significantly altered in the aprf1 mutants. Our data suggest that APRF1 acts upstream of FLC and promotes flowering under LD.
authors.affiliation: National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Faculty of Biology, Department of Botany, 15784 Athens, Greece. Electronic address: gkapolas@yahoo.gr.
authors.forename: Georgios
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kapolas
authors.affiliation: National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Faculty of Biology, Department of Botany, 15784 Athens, Greece. Electronic address: debthem@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Despoina
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Beris
authors.affiliation: National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Faculty of Biology, Department of Botany, 15784 Athens, Greece. Electronic address: ekatsa@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Efthimia
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Katsareli
authors.affiliation: National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Faculty of Biology, Department of Botany, 15784 Athens, Greece. Electronic address: plivanos@biol.uoa.gr.
authors.forename: Pantelis
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Livanos
authors.affiliation: National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Faculty of Biology, Department of Botany, 15784 Athens, Greece. Electronic address: aristzo@yahoo.gr.
authors.forename: Aris
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zografidis
authors.affiliation: National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Faculty of Biology, Department of Botany, 15784 Athens, Greece. Electronic address: aroussis@biol.uoa.gr.
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Roussis
authors.affiliation: Agricultural University of Athens, Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, Iera Odos 75, 11855 Athens, Greece. Electronic address: bmbi2mid@aua.gr.
authors.forename: Dimitra
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Milioni
authors.affiliation: National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Faculty of Biology, Department of Botany, 15784 Athens, Greece. Electronic address: kharalamp@biol.uoa.gr.
authors.forename: Kosmas
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Haralampidis
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000502:physiology*; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000378:metabolism; D035264:Flowers / Q000502:physiology*; D005816:Genetic Complementation Test; D026161:MADS Domain Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016254:Mutagenesis, Insertional; D017440:Photoperiod; D063245:Plant Development; D018517:Plant Roots / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: C000618211:APRF1 protein, Arabidopsis; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins; C418902:At5g10140 protein, Arabidopsis; D026161:MADS Domain Proteins
keywords: Arabidopsis; Chromatin modification; Flowering; WD40 motif; WDR protein