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Expression of NO scavenging hemoglobin is involved in the timing of bolting in Arabidopsis thaliana

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Abstract

Plants contain three classes of hemoglobin genes of which two, class 1 and class 2, have a structure similar to classical vertebrate globins. We investigated the effect of silencing the class 1 non-symbiotic hemoglobin gene, GLB1, and the effect of overexpression of GLB1 or the class 2 non-symbiotic hemoglobin gene, GLB2, in Arabidopsis thaliana. Lines with GLB1 silencing had a significant delay of bolting and after bolting, shoots reverted to the rosette vegetative phase by formation of aerial rosettes at lateral meristems. Lines with overexpression of GLB1 or GLB2 bolted earlier than wild type plants. By germinating the lines in a medium containing the nitric oxide (NO) donor, sodium nitroprusside (SNP), it was demonstrated that both GLB1 and GLB2 promote bolting by antagonizing the effect of NO, suggesting that non-symbiotic plant hemoglobin controls bolting by scavenging the floral transition signal molecule, NO. So far, NO scavenging has only been demonstrated for class 1 non-symbiotic hemoglobins. A direct assay in Arabidopsis leaf cells shows that GLB1 as well as the class 2 non-symbiotic hemoglobin, GLB2, scavenge NO in vivo. NO has also been demonstrated to be a growth stimulating signal with an optimum at low concentrations. It was observed that overexpression of either GLB1 or GLB2 shifts the optimum for NO growth stimulation to a higher concentration. In conclusion, we have found that expression of NO scavenging plant hemoglobin is involved in the control of bolting in Arabidopsis.

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Abbreviations

cPTIO:

2-(4-Carboxyphenyl)-4,4,5,5-tetramethylimidazoline-1-oxyl-3-oxide

FLC:

FLOWERING LOCUS C

GUS:

ß-Glucuronidase

Glb1:

Arabidopsis class 1 hemoglobin

Glb2:

Arabidopsis class 2 hemoglobin

NO:

Nitric oxide

SNP:

Sodium nitroprusside

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Acknowledgments

We are thankful to Dr. Robert Hill (University of Manitoba, Canada) for his valuable comments on the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Molecular biology, Laboratory of Gene Expression, University of Aarhus, Gustav Wieds Vej 10C, 8000, Aarhus C, Denmark

    Kim Henrik Hebelstrup & Erik Østergaard Jensen

  2. Department of Plant Science, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, R3T 2N2, Canada

    Kim Henrik Hebelstrup

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  1. Kim Henrik Hebelstrup
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  2. Erik Østergaard Jensen
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Correspondence to Erik Østergaard Jensen.

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Hebelstrup, K.H., Jensen, E.Ø. Expression of NO scavenging hemoglobin is involved in the timing of bolting in Arabidopsis thaliana . Planta 227, 917–927 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00425-007-0667-z

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