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Expression of KNUCKLES in the Stem Cell Domain Is Required for Its Function in the Control of Floral Meristem Activity in Arabidopsis

In the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, the zinc-finger transcription factor KNUCKLES (KNU) plays an important role in the termination of floral meristem activity, a process that is crucial for preventing the overgrowth of flowers. The KNU gene is activated in floral meristems by the floral organ i...

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Autores principales: Kwaśniewska, Kamila, Breathnach, Caoilfhionn, Fitzsimons, Christina, Goslin, Kevin, Thomson, Bennett, Beegan, Joseph, Finocchio, Andrea, Prunet, Nathanaël, Ó’Maoiléidigh, Diarmuid S., Wellmer, Frank
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8336581/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34367223
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2021.704351
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author Kwaśniewska, Kamila
Breathnach, Caoilfhionn
Fitzsimons, Christina
Goslin, Kevin
Thomson, Bennett
Beegan, Joseph
Finocchio, Andrea
Prunet, Nathanaël
Ó’Maoiléidigh, Diarmuid S.
Wellmer, Frank
author_facet Kwaśniewska, Kamila
Breathnach, Caoilfhionn
Fitzsimons, Christina
Goslin, Kevin
Thomson, Bennett
Beegan, Joseph
Finocchio, Andrea
Prunet, Nathanaël
Ó’Maoiléidigh, Diarmuid S.
Wellmer, Frank
author_sort Kwaśniewska, Kamila
collection PubMed
description In the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, the zinc-finger transcription factor KNUCKLES (KNU) plays an important role in the termination of floral meristem activity, a process that is crucial for preventing the overgrowth of flowers. The KNU gene is activated in floral meristems by the floral organ identity factor AGAMOUS (AG), and it has been shown that both AG and KNU act in floral meristem control by directly repressing the stem cell regulator WUSCHEL (WUS), which leads to a loss of stem cell activity. When we re-examined the expression pattern of KNU in floral meristems, we found that KNU is expressed throughout the center of floral meristems, which includes, but is considerably broader than the WUS expression domain. We therefore hypothesized that KNU may have additional functions in the control of floral meristem activity. To test this, we employed a gene perturbation approach and knocked down KNU activity at different times and in different domains of the floral meristem. In these experiments we found that early expression in the stem cell domain, which is characterized by the expression of the key meristem regulatory gene CLAVATA3 (CLV3), is crucial for the establishment of KNU expression. The results of additional genetic and molecular analyses suggest that KNU represses floral meristem activity to a large extent by acting on CLV3. Thus, KNU might need to suppress the expression of several meristem regulators to terminate floral meristem activity efficiently.
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spelling pubmed-83365812021-08-05 Expression of KNUCKLES in the Stem Cell Domain Is Required for Its Function in the Control of Floral Meristem Activity in Arabidopsis Kwaśniewska, Kamila Breathnach, Caoilfhionn Fitzsimons, Christina Goslin, Kevin Thomson, Bennett Beegan, Joseph Finocchio, Andrea Prunet, Nathanaël Ó’Maoiléidigh, Diarmuid S. Wellmer, Frank Front Plant Sci Plant Science In the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, the zinc-finger transcription factor KNUCKLES (KNU) plays an important role in the termination of floral meristem activity, a process that is crucial for preventing the overgrowth of flowers. The KNU gene is activated in floral meristems by the floral organ identity factor AGAMOUS (AG), and it has been shown that both AG and KNU act in floral meristem control by directly repressing the stem cell regulator WUSCHEL (WUS), which leads to a loss of stem cell activity. When we re-examined the expression pattern of KNU in floral meristems, we found that KNU is expressed throughout the center of floral meristems, which includes, but is considerably broader than the WUS expression domain. We therefore hypothesized that KNU may have additional functions in the control of floral meristem activity. To test this, we employed a gene perturbation approach and knocked down KNU activity at different times and in different domains of the floral meristem. In these experiments we found that early expression in the stem cell domain, which is characterized by the expression of the key meristem regulatory gene CLAVATA3 (CLV3), is crucial for the establishment of KNU expression. The results of additional genetic and molecular analyses suggest that KNU represses floral meristem activity to a large extent by acting on CLV3. Thus, KNU might need to suppress the expression of several meristem regulators to terminate floral meristem activity efficiently. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-07-21 /pmc/articles/PMC8336581/ /pubmed/34367223 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2021.704351 Text en Copyright © 2021 Kwaśniewska, Breathnach, Fitzsimons, Goslin, Thomson, Beegan, Finocchio, Prunet, Ó’Maoiléidigh and Wellmer. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Plant Science
Kwaśniewska, Kamila
Breathnach, Caoilfhionn
Fitzsimons, Christina
Goslin, Kevin
Thomson, Bennett
Beegan, Joseph
Finocchio, Andrea
Prunet, Nathanaël
Ó’Maoiléidigh, Diarmuid S.
Wellmer, Frank
Expression of KNUCKLES in the Stem Cell Domain Is Required for Its Function in the Control of Floral Meristem Activity in Arabidopsis
title Expression of KNUCKLES in the Stem Cell Domain Is Required for Its Function in the Control of Floral Meristem Activity in Arabidopsis
title_full Expression of KNUCKLES in the Stem Cell Domain Is Required for Its Function in the Control of Floral Meristem Activity in Arabidopsis
title_fullStr Expression of KNUCKLES in the Stem Cell Domain Is Required for Its Function in the Control of Floral Meristem Activity in Arabidopsis
title_full_unstemmed Expression of KNUCKLES in the Stem Cell Domain Is Required for Its Function in the Control of Floral Meristem Activity in Arabidopsis
title_short Expression of KNUCKLES in the Stem Cell Domain Is Required for Its Function in the Control of Floral Meristem Activity in Arabidopsis
title_sort expression of knuckles in the stem cell domain is required for its function in the control of floral meristem activity in arabidopsis
topic Plant Science
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8336581/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34367223
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2021.704351
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