Role of Polycomb-group genes in commitment to flowering in Arabidopsis

多梳族基因在拟南芥开花中的作用

• 批准号: BB/F007442/1
• 负责人: Justin Goodrich
• 金额: $ 46.26万
• 依托单位: University of Edinburgh
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2008 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=BB%2FF007442%2F1
• 关键词: Role; Polycomb; group; genes; commitment

Unlike animals, the plant body plan is formed continuously during adult life and can change in response to environment. One of the most significant changes that occurs during the life of a plant is the switch to flowering. Although flowers and vegetative shoots both develop from groups of stem cells at the tips of shoots (meristems), they differ from plant shoots in that they are usually determinate and stop growing once the female reproductive organs are made. In most plants, the switch from shoot to flower formation is controlled environmentally by daylength and temperature. Once the switch happens, it is very stable even if the environment is changed. This is important in ensuring that flower/shoot intermediates are not formed (these would not make seed effectively). Understanding how this stable commitment to flowering is controlled is important, for example for helping us to control when and where flowering occurs. We are studying a group of proteins that are important in both animals and plants for giving cells a 'memory' of their identity, so that / for example / skin cells don't change into gut cells during our lifetime (inappropriate changes in cell identity are thought to underlie many cancers). Unexpectedly, our recent BBSRC funded research showed that when these proteins (called Polycomb) are missing in flowers, flower/shoot intermediates are formed. We think therefore that the stable switch to flowering may in part occur because Polycomb proteins make sure that genes promoting shoot formation are not activated in flowers. In addition, we found that we could identify which genes are switched off by Polycomb proteins as there are characteristic changes which occur to the histone proteins which package genes in the nucleus. Our aim in this project is to use these techniques to identify which targets have to be switched off by Pc-G during flowering in order to make flower development stable.

与动物不同，植物的身体结构是在成年期间不断形成的，并且可以根据环境而变化。植物生命周期中发生的最显着的变化之一是开花。虽然花和营养芽都是由芽尖（分生组织）的干细胞群发育而来，但它们与植物芽的不同之处在于，它们通常是确定的，一旦雌性生殖器官形成，它们就会停止生长。在大多数植物中，从芽形成到开花的转变是由日照长度和温度环境控制的。一旦发生切换，即使环境发生变化，也非常稳定。这对于确保不形成花/芽中间体很重要（这些中间体不会有效地产生种子）。了解如何控制这种对开花的稳定承诺非常重要，例如帮助我们控制开花发生的时间和地点。我们正在研究一组对动物和植物都很重要的蛋白质，它们可以赋予细胞对其身份的“记忆”，这样/例如/皮肤细胞在我们的一生中就不会变成肠道细胞（细胞身份的不当改变）被认为是许多癌症的根源）。出乎意料的是，我们最近 BBSRC 资助的研究表明，当花中缺少这些蛋白质（称为 Polycomb）时，就会形成花/芽中间体。因此，我们认为，向开花的稳定转变可能部分是因为多梳蛋白确保促进芽形成的基因在花中不会被激活。此外，我们发现我们可以识别哪些基因被多梳蛋白关闭，因为在细胞核中包装基因的组蛋白发生了特征性变化。我们在这个项目中的目标是使用这些技术来确定在开花过程中哪些目标必须被 Pc-G 关闭，以使花朵发育稳定。

项目成果

The Footprints of Winter

冬天的足迹

• 期刊: American scientist
• 作者: Justin Goodrich (Author)

Non-inductive conditions expose the cryptic bract of flower phytomeres in Arabidopsis thaliana.

• DOI: 10.1080/15592324.2015.1010868
• 发表时间: 2015
• 期刊: Plant signaling & behavior
• 影响因子: 2.9
• 作者: Müller-Xing R;Schubert D;Goodrich J
• 通讯作者: Goodrich J

Polycomb repressive complex 2 controls the embryo-to-seedling phase transition.

• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1002014
• 发表时间: 2011-03
• 期刊: PLoS genetics
• 影响因子: 4.5
• 作者: Bouyer D;Roudier F;Heese M;Andersen ED;Gey D;Nowack MK;Goodrich J;Renou JP;Grini PE;Colot V;Schnittger A
• 通讯作者: Schnittger A

Sweet memories: epigenetic control in flowering.

• DOI: 10.3410/b3-13
• 发表时间: 2011
• 期刊: F1000 biology reports
• 作者: Müller R;Goodrich J
• 通讯作者: Goodrich J

Footprints of the sun: memory of UV and light stress in plants.

• DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2014.00474
• 发表时间: 2014
• 期刊: Frontiers in plant science
• 影响因子: 5.6
• 作者: Müller-Xing R;Xing Q;Goodrich J
• 通讯作者: Goodrich J