The AGAMOUS-LIKE 20 MADS domain protein integrates floral inductive pathways in Arabidopsis (original) (raw)

  1. Horim Lee1,
  2. Sung-Suk Suh1,
  3. Eunsook Park1,
  4. Euna Cho1,
  5. Ji Hoon Ahn2,
  6. Sang-Gu Kim1,
  7. Jong Seob Lee1,
  8. Young Myung Kwon1, and
  9. Ilha Lee1,3
  10. 1School of Biological Sciences and Research Center for Cell Differentiation, Seoul National University, Seoul, 151-742, Korea;2Plant Biology Laboratory, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, California 92037, USA

Abstract

The very late-flowering behavior of _Arabidopsis_winter-annual ecotypes is conferred mainly by two genes,FRIGIDA (FRI) and FLOWERING LOCUS C(FLC). A MADS-domain gene, AGAMOUS-LIKE 20(AGL20), was identified as a dominant FRI suppressor in activation tagging mutagenesis. Overexpression of AGL20_suppresses not only the late flowering of plants that have functional_FRI and FLC alleles but also the delayed phase transitions during the vegetative stages of plant development. Interestingly, AGL20 expression is positively regulated not only by the redundant vernalization and autonomous pathways of flowering but also by the photoperiod pathway. Our results indicate that AGL20 is an important integrator of three pathways controlling flowering in Arabidopsis.

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