Abstract
An early flowering mutant of Arabidopsis, elf32-D was isolated from activation tagging screening. The mutant flowered earlier than wild type under both long day and short day conditions. The mutant phenotype was caused by overexpression of a Kunitz-type trypsin inhibitor gene (AtKTI1). The expression of AtKTI1 was detected in leaves, flowers, siliques and roots. In the vegetative state, no change of flowering integrator gene expression was observed for AtKTI1 overexpressing plants. In contrast, at the reproductive stage, its overexpression resulted in the down-regulation of FLC, a strong floral repressor which integrates the autonomous and vernalization pathways and also the up-regulation of FT and AP1, which are downstream floral integrator genes. It is probable that the AtKTI1 overexpression inhibits components of the flowering signaling pathway upstream of FLC, eventually regulating expression of FLC, or causing perturbations in plant metabolism and thus indirectly affecting flowering.
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Abbreviations
- AP1:
-
APETALA1
- KTI:
-
Kunitz-type trypsin inhibitor
- FLC:
-
FLOWERING LOCUS C
- FT:
-
FLOWERING LOCUS T
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Acknowledgments
We thank Dr. G. Choi (KAIST, Korea) for the gift of the activation tagging mutant pool. We also thank Dr. Jason Reed (UNC, Chapel Hill, NC, USA) for critical reading of the manuscript. This work was supported by the Korea research Foundation Grant (KRF-2004-202-C00492) funded by the Korea Government (MOEHARD) to K.-H. Im.
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Kim, Jg., Baek, SA. & Im, KH. Overexpression of a Kunitz-type trypsin inhibitor (AtKTI1) causes early flowering in Arabidopsis. Plant Growth Regul 59, 75–81 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10725-009-9389-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10725-009-9389-5