Co-transcriptional splicing regulation in FLC mediated by AtCDC5 and AtSYF2 regulates plant flowering.
Tian Y, Lin P, Li M, Lu H, Li Y
Plant Signaling
Every spring flush of cherry blossoms, every tulip's precise timing, every garlic scape you're watching for — flowering is governed by molecular brakes like the one this study cracks open, and understanding those brakes is how breeders will one day tune crops and ornamentals to stay on schedule as spring climates grow unpredictable.
Plants have a molecular 'stop sign' that prevents them from flowering too early, and two helper proteins were just found that work together to control how loud that stop sign is. One helper wears two hats: it both reads the stop-sign gene's instructions AND edits those instructions before they're used — a surprisingly rare double role. When scientists removed these helpers from plants, flowering time shifted, proving both are key knobs on the plant's internal clock.
Key Findings
Two proteins, AtCDC5 and AtSYF2, co-regulate splicing of FLC — the central flowering-time repressor gene — by binding directly to its pre-mRNA during active transcription.
AtCDC5 is dual-function: its N-terminal domain binds the FLC gene promoter to drive transcription, while the same protein simultaneously participates in splicing of the resulting RNA, a rare transcription-factor/splicing-factor dual role.
Mutant plants lacking AtCDC5 or AtSYF2 showed altered flowering time, and complementation lines rescued the phenotype, confirming both proteins act as negative regulators of flowering.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists identified two proteins that team up inside plant cells to control when a plant flowers, by jointly managing how a key 'flowering brake' gene is read and processed. This reveals a previously unknown molecular handshake between gene transcription and RNA splicing that sets a plant's internal calendar.
Abstract Preview
Co-transcriptional splicing plays a crucial role in eukaryotic gene expression. However, its specific effects on growth, development, and stress responses in animals and plants are still not fully ...
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