Positional cloning and characterization reveal the molecular basis for soybean maturity locus E1 that regulates photoperiodic flowering.

ABSTRACT: The complex and coordinated regulation of flowering has high ecological and agricultural significance. The maturity locus E1 has a large impact on flowering time in soybean, but the molecular basis for the E1 locus is largely unknown. Through positional cloning, we delimited the E1 locus to a 17.4-kb region containing an intron-free gene (E1). The E1 protein contains a putative bipartite nuclear localization signal and a region distantly related to B3 domain. In the recessive allele, a nonsynonymous substitution occurred in the putative nuclear localization signal, leading to the loss of localization specificity of the E1 protein and earlier flowering. The early-flowering phenotype was consistently observed in three ethylmethanesulfonate-induced mutants and two natural mutations that harbo

SUBMITTER: Xia Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3420212 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature