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Plant and Cell Physiology Advance Access originally published online on October 11, 2008
Plant and Cell Physiology 2008 49(11):1645-1658; doi:10.1093/pcp/pcn154
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© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Japanese Society of Plant Physiologists. All rights reserved.
The online version of this article has been published under an open access model. Users are entitled to use, reproduce, disseminate, or display the open access version of this article for non-commercial purposes provided that: the original authorship is properly and fully attributed; the Journal and the Japanese Society of Plant Physiologists are attributed as the original place of publication with the correct citation details given; if an article is subsequently reproduced or disseminated not in its entirety but only in part or as a derivative work this must be clearly indicated. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Rapid Paper

Long-Distance, Graft-Transmissible Action of Arabidopsis FLOWERING LOCUS T Protein to Promote Flowering

Michitaka Notaguchi1,5, Mitsutomo Abe2,5, Takahiro Kimura1, Yasufumi Daimon2, Toshinori Kobayashi2, Ayako Yamaguchi2,4, Yuki Tomita2, Koji Dohi3, Masashi Mori3 and Takashi Araki2,*

1 Department of Botany, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, 606-8502 Japan
2 Division of Integrated Life Science, Graduate School of Biostudies, Kyoto University, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, 606-8501 Japan
3 Research Institute of Agricultural Resources, Ishikawa Prefectural University, Nonoichi-machi, Ishikawa, 921-8836 Japan

*Corresponding author: E-mail, taraqui{at}lif.kyoto-u.ac.jp; Fax, +81-75-753-6470.


  Abstract

Day length perceived by a leaf is a major environmental factor that controls the timing of flowering. It has been believed that a mobile, long-distance signal called florigen is produced in the leaf under inductive day length conditions, and is transported to the shoot apex where it triggers floral morphogenesis. Grafting experiments have shown that florigen is transmissible from a donor plant that has been subjected to inductive day length to an uninduced recipient plant. However, the nature of florigen has long remained elusive. Arabidopsis FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) is expressed in cotyledons and leaves in response to inductive long days (LDs). FT protein, with a basic region/leucine zipper (bZIP) transcription factor FD, acts in the shoot apex to induce target meristem identity genes such as APETALA1 (AP1) and initiates floral morphogenesis. Recent studies have provided evidence that the FT protein in Arabidopsis and corresponding proteins in other species are an important part of florigen. Our work shows that the FT activity, either from overexpressing or inducible transgenes or from the endogenous gene, to promote flowering is transmissible through a graft junction, and that an FT protein with a T7 tag is transported from a donor scion to the apical region of recipient stock plants and becomes detectable within a day or two. The sequence and structure of mRNA are not of critical importance for the long-distance action of the FT gene. These observations led to the conclusion that the FT protein, but not mRNA, is the essential component of florigen.

Keywords: Arabidopsis - Flowering - Florigen - FT - Graft - Long-distance signal

Abbreviations: bZIP, basic region/leucine zipper; CBB, Coomassie brilliant blue; CL, continuous light; EGFP, enhanced green fluorescent protein; FT, FLOWERING LOCUS T; GFP, green fluorescent protein; GUS, β-glucuronidase; Hd3a, Heading date 3a; HSP, heat-shock protein; LD, long day; ORF, open reading frame; 35S, cauliflower mosaic virus 35S RNA promoter; SAM, shoot apical meristem; SD, short day; TFL1, TERMINAL FLOWER 1; UTR, untranslated region; ZT, zeitgeber time.

4Present address: Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA

5These authors contributed equally to this work.

(Received September 16, 2008; Accepted October 8, 2008)
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Related articles in PCP:

Long-Distance, Graft-Transmissible Action of Arabidopsis FLOWERING LOCUS T Protein to Promote Flowering
Michitaka Notaguchi, Mitsutomo Abe, Takahiro Kimura, Yasufumi Daimon, Toshinori Kobayashi, Ayako Yamaguchi, Yuki Tomita, Koji Dohi, Masashi Mori, and Takashi Araki
PCP 2008 49: 1922. [Extract] [FREE Full Text]  



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