Characterisation of a T-DNA-tagged gene of Arabidopsis thaliana that regulates gibberellin metabolism and flowering time
Maria Svensson A , Dan Lundh B , Per Bergman C and Abul Mandal A DA School of Life Sciences, University of Skövde, P.O. Box 408, SE-541 28 Skövde, Sweden.
B School of Communication and Information, University of Skövde, P.O. Box 408, SE-541 28 Skövde, Sweden.
C Department of Plant Biology and Forest Genetics, SLU, SE-750 07 Uppsala, Sweden.
D Corresponding author. Email: abul.mandal@his.se
Functional Plant Biology 32(10) 923-932 https://doi.org/10.1071/FP05019
Submitted: 24 January 2005 Accepted: 20 May 2005 Published: 5 October 2005
Abstract
A gene (At4g20010) involved in regulating flowering time in Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh. was identified by promoter trap T-DNA tagging. Plants containing a T-DNA insert in the 3′-UTR of At4g20010 flowered later under both long- and short-day conditions compared with control plants. Histochemical assays of the mutant plants showed that the promoterless gus gene is expressed predominantly in the shoot apex, but it is also expressed in root tips, stem nodes and in the abscission zone of developing siliques. Measurement of endogenous gibberellin (GA) showed that bioactive GA4 levels in mutant plants were reduced compared with wild type (WT) plants. Like other known mutants defective in GA biosynthesis, the late-flowering phenotype observed in our T-DNA-tagged line could be largely repressed by application of exogenous GA3. The T-DNA-tagged gene At4g20010 encodes a previously uncharacterised protein belonging to the DUF731 family. Sequence analysis showed similarity to a single-stranded binding domain and to an RNA-binding protein of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Considering the above results (sequence similarity, mutant phenotype and level of endogenous GA), we propose that At4g20010 is an RNA-binding protein involved in regulating GA biosynthesis, possibly at the post-transcriptional level.
Keywords: gibberellin biosynthesis, late-flowering, RNA-binding.
Acknowledgments
We thank Dr Thomas Moritz and Inga-Britt Carlsson (SLU, Umeå) for help in measuring endogenous GAs. A grant from the Nilsson-Ehle Foundation (The Royal Physiographic Society in Lund) is also gratefully acknowledged. We also thank Dr Sibdas Ghosh and his students Faith, Francesco, Demetrius and Sherri from the Dominican University of California for their collaboration.
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