Natural variation at FLM splicing has pleiotropic effects modulating ecological strategies in Arabidopsis thaliana.

ABSTRACT: Investigating the evolution of complex phenotypes and the underlying molecular bases of their variation is critical to understand how organisms adapt to their environment. Applying classical quantitative genetics on a segregating population derived from a Can-0xCol-0 cross, we identify the MADS-box transcription factor FLOWERING LOCUS M (FLM) as a player of the phenotypic variation in plant growth and color. We show that allelic variation at FLM modulates plant growth strategy along the leaf economics spectrum, a trade-off between resource acquisition and resource conservation, observable across thousands of plant species. Functional differences at FLM rely on a single intronic substitution, disturbing transcript splicing and leading to the accumulation of non-functional FLM transcripts. A

SUBMITTER: Hanemian M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7435183 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature