Ef7 Encodes an ELF3-like Protein and Promotes Rice Flowering by Negatively Regulating the Floral Repressor Gene Ghd7 under Both Short- and Long-Day Conditions
Open Access
- 14 March 2012
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in Plant and Cell Physiology
- Vol. 53 (4), 717-728
- https://doi.org/10.1093/pcp/pcs029
Abstract
Much progress has been made in our understanding of photoperiodic flowering of rice and the mechanisms underlying short-day (SD) promotion and long-day (LD) repression of floral induction. In this study, we identified and characterized the Ef7 gene, one of the rice orthologs of Arabidopsis EARLY FLOWERING 3 (ELF3). The ef7 mutant HS276, which was induced by γ-irradiation of the japonica rice cultivar ‘Gimbozu’, flowers late under both SD and LD conditions. Expression analyses of flowering time-related genes demonstrated that Ef7 negatively regulates the expression of Ghd7, which is a repressor of the photoperiodic control of rice flowering, and consequently up-regulates the expression of the downstream Ehd1 and FT-like genes under both SD and LD conditions. Genetic analyses with a non-functional Ghd7 allele provided further evidence that the delayed flowering of ef7 is mediated through the Ghd7 pathway. The analysis of light-induced expression of Ghd7 revealed that the ef7 mutant was more sensitive to red light than the wild-type plant, but the gate of Ghd7 expression was unchanged. Thus, our results show that Ef7 functions as a floral promoter by repressing Ghd7 expression under both SD and LD conditions.Keywords
This publication has 58 references indexed in Scilit:
- Temporal Repression of Core Circadian Genes Is Mediated through EARLY FLOWERING 3 in ArabidopsisCurrent Biology, 2011
- OsEF3, a homologous gene ofArabidopsis ELF3, has pleiotropic effects in ricePlant Biology, 2009
- CONSTANS acts in the phloem to regulate a systemic signal that induces photoperiodic flowering ofArabidopsisDevelopment, 2004
- Ehd1, a B-type response regulator in rice, confers short-day promotion of flowering and controls FT-like gene expression independently of Hd1Genes & Development, 2004
- Adaptation of photoperiodic control pathways produces short-day flowering in riceNature, 2003
- Extensive feature detection of N-terminal protein sorting signalsBioinformatics, 2002
- ELF3 Modulates Resetting of the Circadian Clock in ArabidopsisPlant Cell, 2001
- EARLY FLOWERING3 Encodes a Novel Protein That Regulates Circadian Clock Function and Flowering in ArabidopsisPlant Cell, 2001
- Ti-Plasmid Vectors Useful for Functional Analysis of Rice Genes.Plant Biotechnology, 2001
- Conditional Circadian Dysfunction of the Arabidopsis early-flowering 3 MutantScience, 1996