The transition from vegetative development to flowering is a major event in the life cycle of plants. Stem cells in the shoot apical meristem switch from producing primordia that will give rise to the vegetative parts of the plant (e.g. leaves) to produce the reproductive structures (flowers). Because proper timing of this transition is critical to reproductive success, it is highly regulated by both environmental and endogenous factors. One major pathway that regulates flowering time is the autonomous floral-promotion pathway (AP). This pathway promotes flowering by repressing expression of FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC), a MADS-domain-containing transcription factor that acts to delay flowering. The AP is comprised of seven genes that are predicted to encode three RNA-binding proteins (FCA, FPA, and FLK), a polyadenylation factor (FY), two components of the histone deacetylase complex (FLD and FVE), and a homeodomain-containing transcription factor (LD). Null mutations in any one of the AP genes results in increased FLC expression and delayed flowering, thus the activity of all seven genes is required for FLC repression. Currently little is known about how this interesting group of genes acts at a molecular level, although the putative functions of the AP proteins suggests a possible link between RNA processing and chromatin structure; this is an exciting possibility given that other pathways are known to epigenetically regulate FLC through histone modifications.
Our specific aims, therefore, are designed to gain4nsight in to the moteeulaf mechanism ofttieAP; The knowledge gained in these studies is likely to have impacts both in and outside of plant research. Examples of RNA molecules playing key roles in regulating chromatin structure are found from yeast to humans, yet the molecular mechanisms of these phenomenons are not well understood. Thus the insights gained in this work could have impacts across the eukaryotic kingdom. ? ? ?

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01GM075060-02
Application #
7343235
Study Section
Development - 1 Study Section (DEV1)
Program Officer
Haynes, Susan R
Project Start
2007-02-01
Project End
2012-01-31
Budget Start
2008-02-01
Budget End
2009-01-31
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
2008
Total Cost
$255,349
Indirect Cost
Name
Indiana University Bloomington
Department
Biology
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
006046700
City
Bloomington
State
IN
Country
United States
Zip Code
47401
Bergamin, Elisa; Sarvan, Sabina; Malette, Josée et al. (2017) Molecular basis for the methylation specificity of ATXR5 for histone H3. Nucleic Acids Res 45:6375-6387
Feng, Wei; Hale, Christopher J; Over, Ryan S et al. (2017) Large-scale heterochromatin remodeling linked to overreplication-associated DNA damage. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 114:406-411
Hale, Christopher J; Potok, Magdalena E; Lopez, Jennifer et al. (2016) Identification of Multiple Proteins Coupling Transcriptional Gene Silencing to Genome Stability in Arabidopsis thaliana. PLoS Genet 12:e1006092
Feng, Wei; Michaels, Scott D (2015) Accessing the Inaccessible: The Organization, Transcription, Replication, and Repair of Heterochromatin in Plants. Annu Rev Genet 49:439-59
Over, Ryan S; Michaels, Scott D (2014) Open and closed: the roles of linker histones in plants and animals. Mol Plant 7:481-91
Jacob, Yannick; Bergamin, Elisa; Donoghue, Mark T A et al. (2014) Selective methylation of histone H3 variant H3.1 regulates heterochromatin replication. Science 343:1249-53
Lovell, John T; Juenger, Thomas E; Michaels, Scott D et al. (2013) Pleiotropy of FRIGIDA enhances the potential for multivariate adaptation. Proc Biol Sci 280:20131043
Ding, Lei; Kim, Sang Yeol; Michaels, Scott D (2013) FLOWERING LOCUS C EXPRESSOR family proteins regulate FLOWERING LOCUS C expression in both winter-annual and rapid-cycling Arabidopsis. Plant Physiol 163:243-52
Pontvianne, Frédéric; Blevins, Todd; Chandrasekhara, Chinmayi et al. (2012) Histone methyltransferases regulating rRNA gene dose and dosage control in Arabidopsis. Genes Dev 26:945-57
Stroud, Hume; Hale, Christopher J; Feng, Suhua et al. (2012) DNA methyltransferases are required to induce heterochromatic re-replication in Arabidopsis. PLoS Genet 8:e1002808

Showing the most recent 10 out of 28 publications