title: Arabidopsis B-BOX32 interacts with CONSTANS-LIKE3 to regulate flowering.
abstract: Plants have the ability to respond to seasonal environmental variations by monitoring day length to initiate flowering. The transition from vegetative to the reproductive stage is the critical developmental switch in flowering plants to ensure optimal fitness and/or yield. It has been previously reported that B-BOX32 (BBX32) has the potential to increase grain yield when ectopically expressed in soybean. In the present study, we performed a detailed molecular characterization of the Arabidopsis B-box domain gene BBX32 We showed that the circadian clock in Arabidopsis regulates BBX32 and expressed in the early morning. To understand the molecular mechanism of BBX32 regulation, we performed a large-scale yeast two-hybrid screen and identified CONSTANS-LIKE 3 (COL3)/BBX4 as one of its interacting protein partners. Using different genetic and biochemical assays, we have validated this interaction and shown that COL3 targets FT in the presence of BBX32 to regulate the flowering pathway. Based on these findings, we hypothesized that this BBX32-COL3 module could be an additional regulatory mechanism affecting the reproductive development in Arabidopsis that could be translated to crops for increased agricultural productivity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089.
authors.forename: Prateek
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Tripathi
authors.affiliation: Division of Biological Sciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093.
authors.forename: Marcela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Carvallo
authors.affiliation: Division of Biological Sciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093.
authors.forename: Elizabeth E
authors.initials: EE
authors.lastname: Hamilton
authors.affiliation: Monsanto Company, St. Louis, MO 63167.
authors.forename: Sasha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Preuss
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089; stevekay@usc.edu.
authors.forename: Steve A
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-0402-2878
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Kay
mesh_terms: D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development*; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D002352:Carrier Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D057906:Circadian Clocks / Q000502:physiology*; D035264:Flowers / Q000254:growth & development*; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D012621:Seasons
chemical_list: D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins; C568263:BBX32 protein, Arabidopsis; C509520:COL3 protein, Arabidopsis; D002352:Carrier Proteins; C418905:FT protein, Arabidopsis
keywords: Arabidopsis; BBX32; Constans-like; Flowering; circadian rhythms