Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Characterization of a gene from Zea mays related to the Arabidopsis flowering-time gene LUMINIDEPENDENS

  • Published:
Plant Molecular Biology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The molecular biology of flowering has been most extensively studied in the quantitative long-day plant Arabidopsis thaliana. The Arabidopsis LUMINIDEPENDENS (LD) gene encodes a potential transcriptional regulator that acts as a positive effector of flowering, at least in part through suppression of the floral inhibitor gene FLC. As an initial step to explore the conservation of the molecular mechanisms of flowering among plants of various flowering habits, and to further investigate the molecular action(s) of LD, we have identified a gene from maize (Zea mays) that is closely related to Arabidopsis LD. The major product of this gene, which we have designated ZmLD for Zea mays LUMINIDEPENDENS, contains four conserved regions that may constitute functionally important components of the LD proteins. One of these regions closely resembles the canonical homeodomain. The ZmLD gene exists as a single copy in the maize genome, and generates a major ca. 4.0 kb transcript, and a minor ca. 2.6 kb transcript that results from alternative transcriptional termination. The 4.0 kb ZmLDα transcript accumulated to highest levels in proliferative tissues, including the shoot apex and developing inflorescences. Expression of ZmLDα under control of the Arabidopsis LD promoter in transgenic Arabidopsis caused developmental defects similar to those conferred by loss-of-function mutations in a class of genes involved in maintaining the proliferative nature of the shoot, inflorescence, and floral meristems. These effects were not influenced markedly by the activities of the Arabidopsis LD or FLC genes. We consider the implications for the conservation of LD function between maize and Arabidopsis.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Allen, P.B., Kwon, Y.-G., Nairn, A.C. and Greengard, P. 1998. Isolation and characterization of PNUTS, a putative protein phosphatase 1 nuclear targeting subunit. J. Biol. Chem. 273: 4089–4095.

    Google Scholar 

  • Amasino, R.M. 1996. Control of flowering time in plants. Curr. Opin. Genet. Dev. 6: 480–487.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aukerman, M.J., Lee, I., Weigel, D. and Amasino, R.M. 1999. The Arabidopsis flowering-time gene LUMINIDEPENDENS is expressed primarily in regions of cell proliferation and encodes a nuclear protein that regulates LEAFY expression. Plant J. 18: 195–203.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bechtold, N., Ellis, J. and Pelletier, G. 1993. In planta Agrobacterium-mediated gene transfer by infiltration of adult Arabidopsis thaliana plants. C.R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Life Sci. 316: 1194–1199.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blazquez, M.A., Green, R., Nilsson, O., Sussman, M.R. and Weigel, D. 1998. Gibberellins promote flowering of Arabidopsis by activating the LEAFY promoter. Plant Cell 10: 791–800.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burge, C. and Karlin, S. 1997. Prediction of complete gene structures in human genomic DNA. J. Mol. Biol. 268: 78–94.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cheng, P.-C. and Pareddy, D.R. 1994. Morphology and development of the tassel and ear. In: M. Freeling and V. Walbot (Eds.) The Maize Handbook, Springer-Verlag, New York, pp. 000–000.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, S.M. 1990. Specification of limb development in the Drosophila embryo by positional cues from segmentation genes. Nature 343: 173–177.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dalphin, M.E., Stockwell, P.A., Tate, W.P. and Brown, C.M. 1999. TransTerm, the translational signal database, extended to include full coding sequences and untranslated regions. Nucl. Acids Res. 27: 293–294.

    Google Scholar 

  • Devereux, J., Haeberli, P. and Smithies, O. 1984. A comprehensive set of sequence analysis programs for the VAX. Nucl. Acids Res. 12: 387–395.

    Google Scholar 

  • Duboule, D. 1994. Guidebook to the Homeobox Genes. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Endrizzi, K., Moussian, B., Haecker, A., Levin, J.Z. and Laux, T. 1996. The SHOOT MERISTMLESS gene is required for maintenance of undifferentiated cells in Arabidopsis shoot and floral meristems and acts at a different regulatory level than the meristem genes WUSCHEL and ZWILLE. Plant J. 10: 967–979.

    Google Scholar 

  • Galinat, W.C. and Naylor, A.W. 1951. Relation of photoperiod to inflorescence proliferation in Zea mays L. 1951. Am. J. Bot. 38: 38–47.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gerber, H.-P., Seipel, K., Georgiev, O., Hofferer, M., Hug, M., Rusconi, S. and Schaffner, W. 1994. Transcriptional activation modulated by homopolymeric glutamine and proline stretches. Science 263: 808–811.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gonthier, R., Jacqmard, A. and Bernier, G. 1987. Changes in cellcycle duration and growth fraction in the shoot meristem of Sinapis during floral transition. Planta 170: 55–59.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guo, H., Yang, H., Mockler, T.C. and Lin, C. 1998. Regulation of flowering time by Arabidopsis photoreceptors. Science 279: 1360–1363.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hajdukiewicz, P., Svab, Z. and Maliga, P. 1994. The small, versatile pPZP family of Agrobacterium binary vectors for plant transformation. Plant Mol. Biol. 25: 989–994.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hake, S., Vollbrecht, E., Freeling, M. 1989. Cloning Knotted, the dominant morphological mutant in maize using Ds2 as a transposon tag. EMBO J. 8: 15–22.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, A.D. and Herskowitz, I. 1985. A repressor (MATα2 product) and its operator control expression of a set of cell type specific genes in yeast. Cell 42: 237–247.

    Google Scholar 

  • Koester, R.P., Sisco, P.H. and Stuber, C.W. 1993. Identification of quantitative trait loci controlling days to flowering and plant height in two near isogenic lines of maize. Crop Sci. 33: 1209–1216.

    Google Scholar 

  • Koornneef, M., Alonso-Blanco, C., Peeters, A.J.M and Soppe, W. 1998. Genetic control of flowering time in Arabidopsis. Annu. Rev. Plant Physiol. Plant Mol. Biol. 49: 345–370.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kreivi, J.-P., Tinkle-Mulcahy, L., Lyon, C.E., Morrice, N.A., Cohen, P. and Lamond, A.I. 1997. Purification and characterisation of p99, a nuclear modulator of protein phosphatase 1 activity. FEBS Lett. 420: 57–62.

    Google Scholar 

  • Langham, D.G. 1940. The inheritance of intergeneric differences in Zea-Euchlaena hybrids. Genetics 25: 88–108.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee, I., Aukerman, M.J., Gore, S.L., Lohman, K.N., Michaels, S.D., Weaver, L.M., John, M.C., Feldmann, K.A. and Amasino, R.M. 1994a. Isolation of LUMINIDEPENDENS: a gene involved in the control of flowering time in Arabidopsis. Plant Cell 6: 75–83.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee, I., Michaels, S.D., Masshardt, A.S. and Amasino, R.M. 1994b. The late-flowering phenotype of FRIGIDA and mutations in LUMINIDEPENDENS is suppressed in the Landsberg erecta strain of Arabidopsis. Plant J. 6: 903–909.

    Google Scholar 

  • Li, T., Stark, M.R., Johnson, A.D. and Wolberger, C. 1995. Crystal structure of the MATa1/MATα2 homeodomain heterodimer bound to DNA. Science 270: 262–269.

    Google Scholar 

  • MacKnight, R., Bancroft, I., Page, T., Lister, C., Schmidt, R., Love, K., Westphal, L., Murphy, G., Sherson, S., Cobbett, C. and Dean, C. 1997. FCA, a gene controlling flowering time in Arabidopsis, encodes a protein containing RNA-binding domains. Cell 89: 737–745.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martienssen, R.A. 1998. Functional genomics: probing plant gene function and expression with transposons. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 95: 2021–2026.

    Google Scholar 

  • Michaels, S. and Amasino, R.M. 1999. Flowering Locus C encodes a novel MADS domain protein that acts as a repressor of flowering. Plant Cell 11: 949–956.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nilsson, O., Lee, I., Blazquez, M.A. and Weigel, D. 1998. Flowering-time genes modulate the response to LEAFY activity. Genetics 150: 403–410.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pedersen, A.G. and Nielsen, H. 1997. Neural network prediction of translation initiation sites in eukaryotes: perspectives for EST and genome analysis. ISMB 5: 226–233.

    Google Scholar 

  • Putterill, J., Robson, F., Lee, K., Simon, R. and Coupland, G. 1995. The CONSTANS gene of Arabidopsis promotes flowering and encodes a protein showing similarities to zinc finger transcription factors. Cell 80: 847–857.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sambrook, J., Fritsch, E.J. and Maniatis, T. 1989. Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory Manual. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, Plainview, NY.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sanda, S.L. and Amasino, R.M. 1996. Interaction of FLC and late-flowering mutations in Arabidopsis thaliana. Mol. Gen. Genet. 251: 69–74.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sheldon, C.C., Burn, J.E., Perez, P.P., Metzger, J., Edwards, J.A., Peacock, W.J. and Dennis, E.S. 1999. The FLF MADS box gene: a repressor of flowering in Arabidopsis regulated by vernalization and methylation. Plant Cell 11: 445–458.

    Google Scholar 

  • Singleton, W.R. 1946. Inheritance of indeterminate growth in maize. J. Hered. 37: 61–64.

    Google Scholar 

  • Somers, D.E., Webb, A.A.R., Pearson, M. and Kay, S.A. 1998. The short-period mutant, toc1–1, alters circadian clock regulation of multiple outputs throughout development in Arabidopsis thaliana. Development 125: 485–494.

    Google Scholar 

  • Triezenberg, S.J. 1995. Structure and function of transcriptional activation domains. Curr. Opin. Genet. Dev. 5: 190.

    Google Scholar 

  • van Nocker, S., Anderova, M., Schroeder, J.I. and Vierstra, R.D. 1998. ZmUBC7–1, an ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme from maize expressed in mitotically active tissue. Plant Physiol. 116: 1191.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Horticulture, Michigan State University, 390 Plant and Soil Science Building, East Lansing, MI, 48824, USA

    Steven van Nocker

  2. Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc., 7300 NW 62nd Ave., Johnston, IA, 50131-1004, USA

    Michael Muszynski & Kristin Briggs

  3. Department of Biochemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, 53706, USA

    Richard M. Amasino

Authors
  1. Steven van Nocker
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Michael Muszynski
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Kristin Briggs
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Richard M. Amasino
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

van Nocker, S., Muszynski, M., Briggs, K. et al. Characterization of a gene from Zea mays related to the Arabidopsis flowering-time gene LUMINIDEPENDENS. Plant Mol Biol 44, 107–122 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006472929800

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006472929800

Search

Navigation