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OsCO3, a CONSTANS-LIKE gene, controls flowering by negatively regulating the expression of FT-like genes under SD conditions in rice

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Abstract

The photoperiod is an important environmental stress that determines flowering time. The CONSTANS (CO) and Heading date 1 (Hd1) genes are known to be central integrators of the photoperiod pathway in Arabidopsis and rice, respectively. Although they are both members of the CONSTANS-LIKE (COL) family and have two B-boxes and a CCT domain, rice also possesses novel COL genes that are not found in Arabidopsis. Here, we demonstrate that a novel COL gene, OsCO3, containing a single B-box and a CCT domain, modulates photoperiodic flowering in rice. The circadian expression pattern of OsCO3 mRNA oscillated in a different phase from Hd1 and was similar to that of OsCO3 pre-mRNA, suggesting that the diurnal expression pattern of OsCO3 transcripts may be regulated at the transcriptional level. Overexpression of OsCO3 specifically caused late flowering under short day (SD) conditions relative to wild-type rice plants. The expression of Hd3a and FTL decreased in these transgenic plants, whereas the expression of Hd1, Early heading date 1 (Ehd1), OsMADS51, and OsMADS50 did not significantly change. Our results suggest that OsCO3 primarily controls flowering time under SD conditions by negatively regulating Hd3a and FTL expression, independent of the SD-promotion pathway.

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Abbreviations

AP1:

APETALA1

CCT:

CO, CO-like, and TOC1

CO:

CONSTANS

COL:

CO-Like

Ehd1:

Early heading date 1

FT:

FLOWERING LOCUS T

HAPs:

Heme Activator Proteins

Hd1:

Heading date 1

SOC1:

SUPPRESSOR OF OVEREXPRESSION OF CO1

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to B.S. Shin and J.H. Lee for the OsCO3 cDNA clones. This study was supported by a grant from the Plant Signaling Network Research Center, Korea Science and Engineering Foundation, Republic of Korea. S-K. Kim, Y.H. Jang and H-Y. Park were supported by a BK21 research fellowship from the Korean Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development. J.H. Lee was supported by the Korean Research Foundation Grant (KRF-2007-359-C00023) funded by Korea Government (MOEHRD).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Plant Signaling Network Research Center, School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Korea University, Seoul, 136-701, South Korea

    Soon-Kap Kim, Jeong Hwan Lee, Yun Hee Jang, Hyo-Young Park & Jeong-Kook Kim

  2. Genomics Division, National Institute of Agricultural Biotechnology, Suwon, 441-707, South Korea

    Choong-Hyo Yun

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  1. Soon-Kap Kim
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  2. Choong-Hyo Yun
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Correspondence to Jeong-Kook Kim.

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Soon-Kap Kim, Choong-Hyo Yun and Jeong Hwan Lee contributed equally to this work.

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Fig6

Fig. S1 Overexpression of exogenous OsCO3 in OsCO3 T2 lines. The samples were grown under natural (LD-like) conditions. Total RNA was isolated from leaves and Northern-blot analysis was performed to confirm the overexpression of the transgene in each line. OsCO3 full cDNA was employed as a probe

Fig7

Fig. S2 The expression of exogenous and endogenous OsCO3 in OsCO3 transgenic lines grown under SD conditions. Total RNA was isolated from the samples grown for 50, 59, 66, 80, 94, and 110 days. The OsUBQ was employed as a loading control

Fig8

Fig. S3 Flowering times of transgenic rice plants overexpressing OsCO3 at the T3 generation. Flowering time of OsCO3 transgenic plants grown under SD conditions. In each transgenic line, mean values of 10-15 plants with standard errors were used (in some lines without error bars, 1-2 plants were used for measurement of flowering). The flowering times of non-transgenic segregating T3 plants in some lines are not shown, because all segregating plants contained the transgene (PCR analysis was performed to determine the presence of the transgene, although the genotype of each plant was not classified into heterozygote or homozygote). T and N indicate segregating T3 plants with and without the transgene, respectively

Fig9

Fig. S4 The expression of exogenous and endogenous OsCO3 in OsCO3 transgenic lines grown under SD conditions. Total RNA was isolated from the samples grown for 50, 59, 66, 80, 94, and 110 days. The OsUBQ was employed as a loading control

Fig10

Fig. S5 The expression of Hd3a, FTL, and RFT1 in OsCO3 transgenic lines. The samples are the same as those in Fig. S2. OsMADS14/RAP1B was used as a molecular marker that indicates the floral transition

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Kim, SK., Yun, CH., Lee, J.H. et al. OsCO3, a CONSTANS-LIKE gene, controls flowering by negatively regulating the expression of FT-like genes under SD conditions in rice. Planta 228, 355–365 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00425-008-0742-0

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