Project description:Plants monitor and integrate temperature, photoperiod and light quality signals to respond to continuous changes in their environment. The GIGANTEA (GI) protein is central in diverse signaling pathways, including photoperiodic, sugar and light signaling pathways, stress responses and circadian clock regulation. Previously, GI was shown to activate expression of the key floral regulators CONSTANS (CO) and FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) by facilitating degradation of a family of CYCLING DOF FACTOR (CDF) transcriptional repressors. However, whether CDFs are implicated in other processes regulated by GI remains unclear. We investigated the contribution of the GI-CDF module to traits that depend on GI. Transcriptome profiling indicated that mutations in GI and the CDFs have antagonistic effects on expression of a wider set of genes than CO and FT, whilst other genes are regulated by GI independently of the CDFs. Detailed expression studies followed by phenotypic assays showed that the CDFs function downstream of GI to control responses to freezing temperatures and growth, but are not necessary for proper clock function. Thus GI-mediated regulation of CDFs contributes to several processes in addition to flowering, but is not implicated in all of the phenotypes influenced by GI.
Project description:Plants monitor and integrate temperature, photoperiod and light quality signals to respond to continuous changes in their environment. The GIGANTEA (GI) protein is central in diverse signaling pathways, including photoperiodic, sugar and light signaling pathways, stress responses and circadian clock regulation. Previously, GI was shown to activate expression of the key floral regulators CONSTANS (CO) and FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) by facilitating degradation of a family of CYCLING DOF FACTOR (CDF) transcriptional repressors. However, whether CDFs are implicated in other processes regulated by GI remains unclear. We investigated the contribution of the GI-CDF module to traits that depend on GI. Transcriptome profiling indicated that mutations in GI and the CDFs have antagonistic effects on expression of a wider set of genes than CO and FT, whilst other genes are regulated by GI independently of the CDFs. Detailed expression studies followed by phenotypic assays showed that the CDFs function downstream of GI to control responses to freezing temperatures and growth, but are not necessary for proper clock function. Thus GI-mediated regulation of CDFs contributes to several processes in addition to flowering, but is not implicated in all of the phenotypes influenced by GI. Seedlings of Col-0, the cdf1-R cdf2-1 cdf3-1 cdf5-1 quadruple mutant, gi-100 and gi-100 cdf1-R cdf2-1 cdf3-1 cdf5-1 quintuple mutant were grown for 10 days under LD conditions (16h light/8h dark). The aerial part of the seedlings was collected at ZT12 and RNA was prepared from three biological replicas
Project description:This study aimed to characterize the effect of GIGANTEA loss of function on gene expression in Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings genome-wide. To this end, transcriptomic analyses using high-throughput sequencing were carried out in Col-0 wildtype and gi-2 loss-of-function mutants.
Project description:Transcriptional reprogramming plays a key role in drought stress responses, preceding the onset of morphological and physiological adaptations. The best characterised signal regulating gene expression in response to drought is the phytohormone abscisic acid (ABA). ABA-regulated gene expression, biosynthesis and signalling are highly organised in a diurnal cycle, so that ABA-regulated physiological traits occur at the appropriate time of the day. The mechanisms that underpin such diel oscillations in ABA signals are poorly characterised. Here we uncover GIGANTEA (GI) as a key gate keeper of ABA-regulated transcriptional and physiological responses. Time-resolved RNAseq under different irrigation scenarios indicate that gi mutants produce an exaggerated ABA response at midday, despite accumulating wild-type levels ABA. The direct comparison with ABA-deficient mutants confirms the role of GI in controlling ABA-regulated genes and enabled us to distinguish a phase of high ABA sensitivity at dawn, characterized by low GI accumulation.
Project description:Flowering time is a complex trait regulated by many genes that are integrated in different genetic pathways. Different genetic screenings carried out during the past decades have revealed an intrincated genetic regulatory network governing this trait. Efforts aimed at improving our understanding of how such genetic pathways respond to genetic and enviromental cues are needed. We used microarray to identify groups of up and down-regulated genes in an early flowering mutant, suppressor of gigantea (gis5).
Project description:Plants use their endogenous clock to regulate many physiological processes related to their survival and adaptability. GIGANTEA (GI), one of the clock proteins, contributes to the maintenance of circadian period length and amplitude and also regulates flowering time and hypocotyl growth in response to day length. In addition to GI, EARLY FLOWERING 4 (ELF4), another clock regulator, also contributes to these processes. However, little is known about the overall interactions between GI and ELF4 in Arabidopsis. In this study, we investigated the genetic interactions between GI and ELF4 in circadian output regulation. The results show that GI is dominant to ELF4 in flowering time determination, but ELF4 is dominant to GI in hypocotyl growth regulation. Moreover, GI and ELF4 have a synergistic effect on endogenous clock regulation. Further, gene expression profiling of gi-2, elf4, and gi-2 elf4 mutants confirmed that GI and ELF4 had differential dominant effects on circadian physiological outputs at dawn and dusk, respectively. This differential dominance of GI and ELF4 provides a potential means to achieve the diversity in the regulation of circadian physiological outputs including flowering time and hypocotyl growth.