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First published online 1 November 2006
doi: 10.1242/dev.02684

This Article Figures Only Full Text Full Text (PDF) Supplementary Material All Versions of this Article: dev.02684v1 133/23/4699    most recent Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Related articles in Development Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Kim, S. Y. Articles by Michaels, S. D. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Kim, S. Y. Articles by Michaels, S. D.

SUPPRESSOR OF FRI 4 encodes a nuclear-localized protein that is required for delayed flowering in winter-annual Arabidopsis

Department of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA.

^* Author for correspondence (e-mail: michaels{at}indiana.edu)

Accepted 4 October 2006

The floral inhibitor FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC) is a crucial regulator of flowering time in Arabidopsis, and is positively regulated by the FRIGIDA (FRI) gene in late-flowering winter-annual accessions. In rapid-cycling accessions, FLC expression is suppressed by the autonomous floral-promotion pathway (AP); thus AP mutants contain high levels of FLC and are late flowering. Previous work has shown that the upregulation of FLC in FRI- or AP-mutant backgrounds is correlated to an increase in histone H3 lysine 4 (H3K4) trimethylation at the FLC locus. This increase in trimethylation requires a PAF1-like complex and EARLY FLOWERING IN SHORT DAYS (EFS), a putative histone H3 methyltransferase. We have identified a putative zinc-finger-containing transcription factor, SUF4, that is required for the upregulation of FLC by FRI. suf4 mutations strongly suppress the late-flowering phenotype of FRI, but only weakly suppress AP mutants. As with mutants in efs or the PAF1-like complex, suf4 mutants show reduced H3K4 trimethylation at FLC. An interesting distinction between the phenotypes of suf4 mutants and mutants in efs or the PAF1-like complex is observed in the expression of genes that are adjacent to FLC or FLC-like genes. In efs and PAF1-like-complex mutants, the expression of FLC, FLC-like genes and adjacent genes is suppressed. In suf4 mutants, however, only FLC expression is suppressed. These data are consistent with a model in which SUF4 may act to specifically recruit EFS and the PAF1-like complex to the FLC locus.

Key words: FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC), FRIGIDA (FRI), EARLY FLOWERING IN SHORT DAYS (EFS), PAF1 complex, Vernalization, Flowering

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