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PMID: 16778081 Published · ppublish English Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Polycomb-group proteins repress the floral activator AGL19 in the FLC-independent vernalization pathway.

Genes & development ·Vol. 20 ·No. 12 ·2006-06-15 ·Pages 1667-78

Schönrock N, Bouveret R, Leroy O, Borghi L, Köhler C, Gruissem W, Hennig L

Abstract

Polycomb-group (PcG) proteins form a cellular memory by maintaining developmental regulators in a transcriptionally repressed state. We identified a novel flowering gene that is under PcG control in Arabidopsis--the MADS-box gene AGL19. AGL19 expression is maintained at very low levels by the PcG proteins MSI1, CLF, and EMF2, and AGL19 is partly responsible for the early flowering phenotype of clf mutants. AGL19 chromatin is strongly enriched in trimethylation of Lys 27 on histone H3 (H3K27me3) but not in H3K9me2. Repressive H3K27me3 marks were reduced by decreased CLF or MSI1 levels and by prolonged cold, suggesting that the PcG proteins MSI1 and CLF repress AGL19 in the absence of cold. Ectopic expression of AGL19 strongly accelerates flowering, and agl19 mutants have a decreased response to vernalization, the promotion of flowering by prolonged cold. Epistasis analyses revealed that AGL19 works in the poorly characterized FLC-independent vernalization pathway and does not require SOC1 to function. In this pathway, prolonged cold relieves AGL19 from PcG repression by a mechanism that requires VIN3 but not VRN2. Elevated AGL19 levels activate LFY and AP1 and eventually cause flowering.

MeSH Terms
Arabidopsis/genetics,metabolism Arabidopsis Proteins/genetics,metabolism,physiology Cell Nucleus/metabolism Flowers/genetics,metabolism Gene Expression Regulation, Plant MADS Domain Proteins/genetics,metabolism,physiology Methylation Mutation/genetics Polycomb-Group Proteins Protein Transport Repressor Proteins/metabolism Transcription Factors/metabolism Up-Regulation/genetics
Chemicals
AGL19 protein, Arabidopsis AGL20 protein, Arabidopsis Arabidopsis Proteins FLF protein, Arabidopsis MADS Domain Proteins MSI1 protein, Arabidopsis Polycomb-Group Proteins Repressor Proteins Transcription Factors
Authors & Affiliations
7 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Schönrock Nicole
Institute of Plant Sciences and Zurich-Basel Plant Science Center, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Center, CH-8092 Zurich, Switzerland.
Bouveret Romaric
Leroy Olivier
Borghi Lorenzo
Köhler Claudia
Gruissem Wilhelm
Hennig Lars
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Article Info
Journal
Genes & development
Abbr.
Genes Dev
ISSN
0890-9369
DOI
10.1101/gad.377206
Published
2006-06-15
Pages
1667-78
Language
English
Region
United States
NLM ID
8711660
PMCID
PMC1482485
Subset
IM
External Links
PubMed source DOI: 10.1101/gad.377206 PMC Full Text View journal details
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