Resetting of FLOWERING LOCUS C expression after epigenetic repression by vernalization.

ABSTRACT: The epigenetic repression of FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC) in winter-annual ecotypes of Arabidopsis by prolonged cold ensures that plants flower in spring and not during winter. Resetting of the FLC expression level in progeny is an important step in the life cycle of the plant. We show that both the paternally derived and the maternally derived FLC:GUS genes are reset to activity but that the timing of their first expression differs. The paternal FLC:GUS gene in vernalized plants is expressed in the male reproductive organs, the anthers, in both somatic tissue and in the sporogenous pollen mother cells, but there is no expression in mature pollen. In the progeny generation, the paternally derived FLC:GUS gene is expressed in the single-celled zygote (fertilized egg cell) and through embryo deve

SUBMITTER: Sheldon CC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2542874 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature