ROS regulated reversible protein phase separation synchronizes plant flowering
- 25 February 2021
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Springer Science and Business Media LLC in Nature Chemical Biology
- Vol. 17 (5), 549-557
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41589-021-00739-0
Abstract
How aerobic organisms exploit inevitably generated but potentially dangerous reactive oxygen species (ROS) to benefit normal life is a fundamental biological question. Locally accumulated ROS have been reported to prime stem cell differentiation. However, the underlying molecular mechanism is unclear. Here, we reveal that developmentally produced H2O2 in plant shoot apical meristem (SAM) triggers reversible protein phase separation of TERMINATING FLOWER (TMF), a transcription factor that times flowering transition in the tomato by repressing pre-maturation of SAM. Cysteine residues within TMF sense cellular redox to form disulfide bonds that concatenate multiple TMF molecules and elevate the amount of intrinsically disordered regions to drive phase separation. Oxidation triggered phase separation enables TMF to bind and sequester the promoter of a floral identity gene ANANTHA to repress its expression. The reversible transcriptional condensation via redox-regulated phase separation endows aerobic organisms with the flexibility of gene control in dealing with developmental cues.Keywords
This publication has 63 references indexed in Scilit:
- Ethylene Signaling Negatively Regulates Freezing Tolerance by Repressing Expression of CBF and Type-A ARR Genes in ArabidopsisTHE PLANT CELL ONLINE, 2012
- Phase transitions in the assembly of multivalent signalling proteinsNature, 2012
- ALOG domains: provenance of plant homeotic and developmental regulators from the DNA-binding domain of a novel class of DIRS1-type retroposonsBiology Direct, 2012
- Rate of meristem maturation determines inflorescence architecture in tomatoProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2011
- ORGAN BOUNDARY1 defines a gene expressed at the junction between the shoot apical meristem and lateral organsProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2011
- Transcriptional Regulation of ROS Controls Transition from Proliferation to Differentiation in the RootCell, 2010
- The homeotic gene long sterile lemma ( G1 ) specifies sterile lemma identity in the rice spikeletProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2009
- The Making of a Compound Inflorescence in Tomato and Related NightshadesPLoS Biology, 2008
- Radical-free biology of oxidative stressAmerican Journal of Physiology-Cell Physiology, 2008
- Transposase-Derived Transcription Factors Regulate Light Signaling in ArabidopsisScience, 2007