• Molecules and Cells
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• v.41 no.8
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• pp.781-798
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• 2018

Plants have evolved strategies to cope with drought stress by maximizing physiological capacity and adjusting developmental processes such as flowering time. The WOX13 orthologous group is the most conserved among the clade of WOX homeodomain-containing proteins and is found to function in both drought stress and flower development. In this study, we isolated and characterized OsWOX13 from rice. OsWOX13 was regulated spatially in vegetative organs but temporally in flowers and seeds. Overexpression of OsWOX13 (OsWOX13-ov) in rice under the rab21 promoter resulted in drought resistance and early flowering by 7-10 days. Screening of gene expression profiles in mature leaf and panicles of OsWOX13-ov showed a broad spectrum of effects on biological processes, such as abiotic and biotic stresses, exerting a cross-talk between responses. Protein binding microarray and electrophoretic mobility shift assay analyses supported ATTGATTG as the putative cis-element binding of OsWOX13. OsDREB1A and OsDREB1F, drought stress response transcription factors, contain ATTGATTG motif(s) in their promoters and are preferentially expressed in OsWOX13-ov. In addition, Heading date 3a and OsMADS14, regulators in the flowering pathway and development, were enhanced in OsWOX13-ov. These results suggest that OsWOX13 mediates the stress response and early flowering and, thus, may be a regulator of genes involved in drought escape.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.110 no.3
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• pp.322-340
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• 2021

Due to climate change and its consequential spring temperature rise, flowering time of Robinia pseudoacacia has advanced and a simultaneous blooming phenomenon occurred in different regions in South Korea. These changes in flowering time became a major crisis in the domestic beekeeping industry and the demand for accurate prediction of flowering time for R. pseudoacacia is increasing. In this study, we developed and compared performance of four different models predicting flowering time of R. pseudoacacia for the entire country: a Single Model for the country (SM), Modified Single Model (MSM) using correction factors derived from SM, Group Model (GM) estimating parameters for each region, and Local Model (LM) estimating parameters for each site. To achieve this goal, the bloom date data observed at 26 points across the country for the past 12 years (2006-2017) and daily temperature data were used. As a result, bloom dates for the north central region, where spring temperature increase was more than two-fold higher than southern regions, have advanced and the differences compared with the southwest region decreased by 0.7098 days per year (p-value=0.0417). Model comparisons showed MSM and LM performed better than the other models, as shown by 24% and 15% lower RMSE than SM, respectively. Furthermore, validation with 16 additional sites for 4 years revealed co-krigging of LM showed better performance than expansion of MSM for the entire nation (RMSE: p-value=0.0118, Bias: p-value=0.0471). This study improved predictions of bloom dates for R. pseudoacacia and proposed methods for reliable expansion to the entire nation.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.259-266
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• 2015

The regulation of flowering time has crucial implications for plant fitness. MicroRNA156 (miR156) represses the floral transition in Arabidopsis thaliana, but the mechanisms regulating its transcription remain unclear. Here, we show that two AGAMOUS-like proteins, AGL15 and AGL18, act as positive regulators of the expression of MIR156. Small RNA northern blot analysis revealed a significant decrease in the levels of mature miR156 in agl15 agl18 double mutants, but not in the single mutants, suggesting that AGL15 and AGL18 co-regulate miR156 expression. Histochemical analysis further indicated that the double mutants showed a reduction in MIR156 promoter strength. The double mutants also showed reduced abundance of pri-miR156a and pri-miR156c, two of the primary transcripts from MIR156 genes. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays demonstrated that AGL15 directly associated with the CArG motifs in the MIR156a/c promoters. AGL18 did not show binding affinity to the CArG motifs, but pull-down and yeast two-hybrid assays showed that AGL18 forms a heterodimer with AGL15. GFP reporter assays and bimolecular fluorescence complementation (BiFC) showed that AGL15 and AGL18 co-localize in the nucleus and confirmed their in vivo interaction. Overexpression of miR156 did not affect the levels of AGL15 and AGL18 transcripts. Taking these data together, we present a model for the transcriptional regulation of MIR156. In this model, AGL15 and AGL18 may form a complex along with other proteins, and bind to the CArG motifs of the promoters of MIR156 to activate the MIR156 expression.