The LEAFY Floral Regulators in Angiosperms: Conserved Proteins with Diverse Roles (original) (raw)
Related papers
LEAFY controls floral meristem identity in Arabidopsis
Cell, 1992
The first step in flower development is the generation of a floral meristem by the inflorescence meristem. We have analyzed how this process is affected by mutant alleles of the Arabidopsis gene LEAFY. We show that LEAFY interacts with another floral control gene, APETALAl, to promote the transition from inflorescence to floral meristem. We have cloned the LEAFY gene, and, consistent with the mutant phenotype, we find that LEAFY RNA is expressed strongly in young flower primordia. LEAFY expression precedes expression of the homeotic genes AGAMOUS and APET-ALA3, which specify organ identity within the flower. Furthermore, we demonstrate that LEAFY is the Arabidopsis homolog of the FLORKAULA gene, which controls floral meristem identity in the distantly related species Antirrhinum majus.
Developmental Cell, 2011
The transition from vegetative growth to flower formation is critical for the survival of flowering plants. The plant-specific transcription factor LEAFY (LFY) has central, evolutionarily conserved roles in this process, both in the formation of the first flower and later in floral patterning. We performed genome-wide binding and expression studies to elucidate the molecular mechanisms by which LFY executes these roles. Our study reveals that LFY directs an elaborate regulatory network in control of floral homeotic gene expression. LFY also controls the expression of genes that regulate the response to external stimuli in Arabidopsis. Thus, our findings support a key role for LFY in the coordination of reproductive stage development and disease response programs in plants that may ensure optimal allocation of plant resources for reproductive fitness. Finally, motif analyses reveal a possible mechanism for stage-specific LFY recruitment and suggest a role for LFY in overcoming polycomb repression.
The Plant Journal, 1999
SummaryGenetic and molecular studies have suggested that the UNUSUAL FLORAL ORGANS (UFO) gene, from Arabidopsis thaliana, is expressed in all shoot apical meristems, and is involved in the regulation of a complex set of developmental events during floral development, including floral meristem and floral organ identity. Results from in situ hybridization using genes expressed early in floral development as probes indicate that UFO controls growth of young floral primordia. Transgenic constructs were used to provide evidence that UFO regulates floral organ identity by activating or maintaining transcription of the class B organ‐identity gene APETALA 3, but not PISTILLATA. In an attempt to understand the biochemical mode of action of the UFO gene product, we show here that UFO is an F‐box protein that interacts with Arabidopsis SKP1‐like proteins, both in the yeast two‐hybrid system and in vitro. In yeast and other organisms both F‐box proteins and SKP1 homologues are subunits of speci...
Molecular evolution of the transcription factor LEAFY in Brassicaceae
Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 2005
LEAFY (LFY) is a DNA-binding transcription factor that regulates floral meristem identity. LFY is unusual among angiosperm developmental regulators because it is not part of an extended gene family. Recent expression studies and transgenic experiments have suggested that changes at the LFY locus might have played a role in the evolution of rosette flowering, a modified plant architecture that has
Transcription factor Interplay between LEAFY and APETALA1/ CAULIFLOWER during Floral Initiation
Plant physiology, 2017
The transcription factors LEAFY (LFY) and APETALA1 (AP1), together with the AP1 paralog CAULIFLOWER (CAL), control the onset of flower development in a partially redundant manner. This redundancy is thought to be mediated, at least in part, through the regulation of a shared set of target genes. However, whether these genes are independently or cooperatively regulated by LFY and AP1/CAL, is currently unknown. To better understand the regulatory relationship between LFY and AP1/CAL during floral initiation, we monitored the activity of LFY in the absence of AP1/CAL function. We found that the regulation of several known LFY target genes is unaffected by AP1/CAL perturbation, while others appear to require AP1/CAL activity. Furthermore, we obtained evidence that LFY and AP1/CAL control the expression of some genes in an antagonistic manner. Notably, these include key regulators of floral initiation such as TERMINAL FLOWER1 (TFL1), which had been previously reported to be directly repr...
Annals of botany, 2014
The morphological variability of the flower in angiosperms, combined with its relatively simple structure, makes it an excellent model to study cell specification and the establishment of morphogenetic patterns. Flowers are the products of floral meristems, which are determinate structures that generate four different types of floral organs before terminating. The precise organization of the flower in whorls, each defined by the identity and number of organs it contains, is controlled by a multi-layered network involving numerous transcriptional regulators. In particular, the AGAMOUS (AG) MADS domain-containing transcription factor plays a major role in controlling floral determinacy in Arabidopsis thaliana in addition to specifying reproductive organ identity. This study aims to characterize the genetic interactions between the ULTRAPETALA1 (ULT1) and LEAFY (LFY) transcriptional regulators during flower morphogenesis, with a focus on AG regulation. Genetic and molecular approaches ...
LEAFY, a Homeotic Gene That Regulates Inflorescence Development in Arabidopsis
Plant Cell, 1991
Variation in plant shoot structure may be described as occurring through changes within a basic unit, the metamer. Using this terminology, the apical meristem of Arabidopsis produces three metameric types sequentially: type 1, rosette; type 2, coflorescence-bearing with bract; and type 3, flower-bearing without bract. We describe a mutant of Arabidopsis, Leafy, homozygous for a recessive allele of a nuclear gene LEAFY (LFY), that has an inflorescence composed only of type 2-like metamers. These data suggest that the LFY gene is required for the development of type 3 metamers and that the transition from type 2 to type 3 metamers is a developmental step distinct from that between vegetative and reproductive growth (type 1 to type 2 metamers). Results from double mutant analysis, showing that /fy-7 is epistatic to the floral organ homeotic gene ap2-6, are consistent with the hypothesis that a functional LFY gene is necessary for the expression of downstream genes controlling floral organ identity.