• Molecules and Cells
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• v.39 no.10
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• pp.715-721
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• 2016

Plants have become physiologically adapted to a seasonally shifting environment by evolving many sensory mechanisms. Seasonal flowering is a good example of adaptation to local environmental demands and is crucial for maximizing reproductive fitness. Photoperiod and temperature are major environmental stimuli that control flowering through expression of a floral inducer, FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) protein. Recent discoveries made using the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana have shown that the functions of photoreceptors are essential for the timing of FT gene induction, via modulation of the transcriptional activator CONSTANS (CO) at transcriptional and post-translational levels in response to seasonal variations. The activation of FT transcription by the fine-tuned CO protein enables plants to switch from vegetative growth to flowering under inductive environmental conditions. The present review briefly summarizes our current understanding of the molecular mechanisms by which the information of environmental stimuli is sensed and transduced to trigger FT induction in leaves.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.408-412
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• 2008

FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) and TERMINAL FLOWER 1 (TFL1) in Arabidopsis are homologous proteins that perform opposite functions: FT is an activator of flowering, and TFL1 is a repressor. It was shown before that change of a single amino acid (His88) of TFL1 to the corresponding amino acid (Tyr) of FT is enough to convert the floral repressor to an activator. However, structural basis of the functional conversion has not been understood. In our molecular dynamics simulations on modified TFL1 proteins, a hydrogen bond present in native TFL1 between the His88 residue and a residue (Asp144) in a neighboring external loop became broken by change of His88 to Tyr. This breakage induced conformational change of the external loop whose structure was previously reported to be another key functional determinant. These findings reveal that the two important factors determining the functional specificities of the floral regulators, the key amino acid (His88) and the external loop, are correlated, and the key amino acid determines the functional specificity indirectly by affecting the conformation of the external loop.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.42 no.5
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• pp.406-417
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• 2019

RICE FLOWERING LOCUS T 1 (RFT1) is a major florigen that functions to induce reproductive development in the shoot apical meristem (SAM). To further our study of RFT1, we overexpressed the gene and examined the expression patterns of major regulatory genes during floral transition and inflorescence development. Overexpression induced extremely early flowering in the transgenics, and a majority of those calli directly formed spikelets with a few spikelets, thus bypassing normal vegetative development. FRUITFULL (FUL)-clade genes OsMADS14, OsMADS15, and OsMADS18 were highly induced in the RFT1-expressing meristems. OsMADS34 was also induced in the meristems. This indicated that RFT1 promotes the expression of major regulatory genes that are important for inflorescence development. RFT1 overexpression also induced SEPALLATA (SEP)-clade genes OsMADS1, OsMADS5, and OsMADS7 in the greening calli before floral transition occurred. This suggested their possible roles at the early reproductive stages. We found it interesting that expression of OsFD1 as well as OsFD2 and OsFD3 was strongly increased in the RFT1-expressing calli and spikelets. At a low frequency, those calli produced plants with a few leaves that generated a panicle with a small number of spikelets. In the transgenic leaves, the FUL-clade genes and OsMADS34 were induced, but SEP-clade gene expression was not increased. This indicated that OsMADS14, OsMADS15, OsMADS18, and OsMADS34 act immediately downstream of RFT1.

• Proceedings of the Plant Resources Society of Korea Conference
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• 2018.04a
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• pp.17-17
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• 2018

Panax ginseng Meyer is a perennial medicinal plant, the roots of which has been used in the traditional formulations in Oriental countries. To understand its floral transition, we isolated Flowering Locus T (FT) from ginseng, the bioinformatics analysis of PgFT has revealed a considerable homology to the higher plants, with the essential amino acids for FT function are conserved. The phylogenetic analysis has shown that the PgFT is belonged to the shrub classes of plants and closest kin to Jatropha curcas FT. The expression profiling from juvenile (2-year-old) were abundant in leaves as well as in root and was concentrated in the secondary leaflet and stem bottom in adult (4-year-old) ginseng plant tissues, moreover PgFT transcript displayed photoperiod dependent oscillation. The ectopic expression of PgFT in Arabidopsis thaliana, exhibit precocious flowering and several floral pathway integrators were up-regulated, interestingly their root length was increased in the transgenic seedlings. Therefore, we could conclude that PgFT encodes a florigen that acts as a key regulator in the flowering pathway in ginseng and hypothesize that, it might involve in the underground organ development as well. We believe our finding could provoke future studies on the physiology and development in P. ginseng.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.41 no.7
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• pp.665-675
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• 2018

Rice is a facultative short-day (SD) plant in which flowering is induced under SD conditions or by other environmental factors and internal genetic programs. Overexpression of Histone Deacetylase 701 (HDT701) accelerates flowering in hybrid rice. In this study, mutants defective in HDT701 flowered late under both SD and long-day conditions. Expression levels of florigens Heading date 3a (Hd3a) and Rice Flowering Locus T1 (RFT1), and their immediate upstream floral activator Early heading date 1 (Ehd1), were significantly decreased in the hdt701 mutants, indicating that HDT701 functions upstream of Ehd1 in controlling flowering time. Transcript levels of OsINDETERMINATE SPIKELET 1 (OsIDS1), an upstream repressor of Ehd1, were significantly increased in the mutants while those of OsGI and Hd1 were reduced. Chromatin-immunoprecipitation assays revealed that HDT701 directly binds to the promoter region of OsIDS1. These results suggest that HDT701 induces flowering by suppressing OsIDS1.

• BMB Reports
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.163-164
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• 2018

CONSTANS (CO) induces the expression of FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) in the photoperiodic pathway, and thereby regulates the seasonal timing of flowering. CO expression is induced and CO protein is stabilized by FLAVIN-BINDING KELCH REPEAT F-BOX PROTEIN 1 (FKF1) in the late afternoon, while CO is degraded by CONSTITUTIVE PHOTOMORPHOGENIC 1 (COP1) during the night. These regulatory cascades were thought to act independently. In our study, we investigated the relationship between FKF1 and COP1 in the regulation of CO stability in response to ambient light conditions. A genetic analysis revealed that FKF1 acts as a direct upstream negative regulator of COP1, in which cop1 mutation is epistatic to fkf1 mutation in the photoperiodic regulation of flowering. COP1 activity requires the formation of a hetero-tetramer with SUPPRESSOR OF PHYA-105 (SPA1), [$(COP1)_2(SPA1)_2$]. Light-activated FKF1 has an increased binding capacity for COP1, forming a FKF1-COP1 hetero-dimer, and inhibiting COP1 homo-dimerization at its coiled-coil (CC) domain. Mutations in the CC domain result in poor COP1 dimerization and misregulation of photoperiodic floral induction. We propose that FKF1 represses COP1 activity by inhibiting COP1 dimerization in the late afternoon under long-day conditions, resulting in early flowering.

• Journal of Integrative Natural Science
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.113-120
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• 2011

Brassinosteroids (BRs) are plant steroid hormones that play essential roles in growth and development. Mutations in BR-signaling pathways cause defective in growth and development like dwarfism, male sterility, abnormal vascular development and photomorphogenesis. Transition from vegetative to reproductive growth is a critical phase change in the development of a flowering plant. In a screen of activation-tagged Arabidopsis, we identified a mutant named abz126 that displayed longer hypocotyls when grown in the dark on MS media containing brassinazole (Brz), an inhibitor of BRs biosynthesis. We have cloned the mutant locus using adapter ligation PCR walking and identified that a single T-DNA had been integrated into the ninth exon of the GIGANTEA (GI) gene, involved in controling flowering time. This insertion resulted in loss-of-function of the GI gene and caused the following phenotypes: long petioles, tall plant height, many rosette leaves and late flowering. RT-PCR assays on abz126 mutant showed that the T-DNA insertion in GIGANTEA led to the loss of mRNA expression of the GI gene. In the hormone dose response assay, abz126 mutant showed: 1) an insensitivity to paclobutrazole (PAC), 2) an altered response with 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP) and 3) insensitive to Brassinolide (BL). Based on these results, we propose that the late flowering and tall phenotypes displayed by the abz126 mutant are caused by a loss-of-function of the GI gene associated with brassinosteroid hormone signaling.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.42 no.10
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• pp.693-701
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• 2019

Plants monitor changes in day length to coordinate their flowering time with appropriate seasons. In Arabidopsis, the diel and seasonal regulation of CONSTANS (CO) protein stability is crucial for the induction of FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) gene in long days. FLAVIN-BINDING, KELCH REPEAT, F-BOX 1 (FKF1) and ZEITLUPE (ZTL) proteins control the shape of CO expression profile antagonistically, although regulation mechanisms remain unknown. In this study, we show that GIGANTEA (GI) protein modulates the stability and nuclear function of FKF1, which is closely related to the stabilization of CO in the afternoon of long days. The abundance of FKF1 protein is decreased by the gi mutation, but increased by GI overexpression throughout the day. Unlike the previous report, the translocation of FKF1 to the nucleus was not prevented by ZTL overexpression. In addition, the FKF1-ZTL complex formation is higher in the nucleus than in the cytosol. GI interacts with ZTL in the nucleus, implicating the attenuation of ZTL activity by the GI binding and, in turn, the sequestration of FKF1 from ZTL in the nucleus. We also found that the CO-ZTL complex presents in the nucleus, and CO protein abundance is largely reduced in the afternoon by ZTL overexpression, indicating that ZTL promotes CO degradation by capturing FKF1 in the nucleus under these conditions. Collectively, our findings suggest that GI plays a pivotal role in CO stability for the precise control of flowering by coordinating balanced functional properties of FKF1 and ZTL.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.315-321
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• 2018

Molecular and functional characterization of proteins and their levels is of great interest in understanding the mechanism of diverse cellular processes. In this study, we report on the convenient Escherichia coli-based protein expression system that allows recombinant of soluble proteins expression and cytosolic domain of membrane-localised kinases, followed by the detection of autophosphorylation activity in protein kinases. This approach is applied to regulatory proteins of Arabidopsis thaliana, including 14-3-3, calmodulin, calcium-dependent protein kinase, TERMINAL FLOWER 1(TFL1), FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT), receptor-like cytoplasmic kinase and cytoplasmic domain of leucine-rich repeat-receptor like kinase proteins. Our Western blot analysis which uses phospho-specific antibodies showed that five putative LRR-RLKs and two putative RLCKs have autophosphorylation activity in vitro on threonine and/or tyrosine residue(s), suggesting their potential role in signal transduction pathways. Our findings were also discussed in the broader context of recombinant expression and biochemical analysis of soluble and membrane-localised receptor kinases in microbial systems.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.559-565
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• 2008

Members of the TGA family of basic domain/leucine zipper transcription factors regulate defense genes through physical interaction with NON-EXPRESSOR OF PR1 (NPR1). Of the seven TGA family members, TGA4/octopine synthase (ocs)-element-binding factor 4 (OBF4) is the least understood. Here we present evidence for a novel function of OBF4 as a regulator of flowering. We identified CONSTANS (CO), a positive regulator of floral induction, as an OBF4-interacting protein, in a yeast two-hybrid library screen. OBF4 interacts with the B-box region of CO. The abundance of OBF4 mRNA cycles with a 24 h rhythm under both long-day (LD) and short-day (SD) conditions, with significantly higher levels during the night than during the day. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays revealed that OBF4 binds to the promoter of the FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) gene, a direct target of CO. We also found that, like CO and FT, an OBF4:GUS construct was prominently expressed in the vascular tissues of leaf, indicating that OBF4 can regulate FT expression through the formation of a protein complex with CO. Taken together, our results suggest that OBF4 may act as a link between defense responses and flowering.