Abstract:
Vernalization is the promotion of flowering after prolonged exposure to cold. In
Arabidopsis thaliana, vernalization induces epigenetic silencing of the floral repressor
gene FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC). The repressive epigenetic mark trimethylation of
lysine 27 on histone H3 proteins (H3K27me3) is a critical contributor to the epigenetic
silencing of FLC. Interestingly, the deposited H3K27me3 in the FLC locus can be
erased by short-term high-temperature treatment. This is referred to as devernalization.
In this study, we identified a novel chemical compound, 4-Isoxazolecarboxylic acid,
3,5-dimethyl-2-(4-fluorophenyl)-4-isoxazole carboxylic acid 1-methyl-2-oxoethyl ester
named as DEVERNALIZER01 (DVR01), which induces devernalization in Arabidopsis
seedlings, by an FLC-luciferase reporter-based high-throughput screening assay.
DVR01 decreased the amount of H3K27me3 in the FLC locus in vernalized plants,
resulting in the upregulation of FLC in the whole plant, including the vasculature and
meristem, where FLC represses floral induction genes. We also showed that a 2-week
treatment with DVR01 reverted plants with a vernalized status back to a fully nonvernalized
status. Collectively, this study provides a novel structure of DVR01, which
modulates devernalization via demethylation of H3K27me3 in the FLC locus.
Information:
Version:
none
Journal title:
Frontiers in Plant Science
Vol(Issue):
12
Language:
en
Copyright:
© 2021 Shirakawa, Morisaki, Gan, Sato and Ito. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.