The arabidopsis floral repressor BFT delays flowering by competing with FT for FD binding under high salinity

Jae Yong Ryu, Hyo Jun Lee, Pil Joon Seo, Jae Hoon Jung, Ji Hoon Ahn, Chung Mo Park

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    89 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Soil salinity is one of the most serious agricultural problems that significantly reduce crop yields in the arid and semi-arid regions. It influences various phases of plant growth and developmental processes, such as seed germination, leaf and stem growth, and reproductive propagation. Salt stress delays the onset of flowering in many plant species. We have previously reported that the Arabidopsis BROTHER OF FT AND TFL1 (BFT) acts as a floral repressor under salt stress. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the BFT function in the salt regulation of flowering induction is unknown. In this work, we found that BFT delays flowering under high salinity by competing with FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) for binding to the FD transcription factor. The flowering time of FD-deficient fd-2 mutant was insensitive to high salinity. BFT interacts with FD in the nucleus via the C-terminal domain of FD, which is also required for the interaction of FD with FT, and interferes with the FT-FD interaction. These observations indicate that BFT constitutes a distinct salt stress signaling pathway that modulates the function of the FT-FD module and possibly provides an adaptation strategy that fine-tunes photoperiodic flowering under high salinity.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)377-387
    Number of pages11
    JournalMolecular Plant
    Volume7
    Issue number2
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2014 Feb

    Bibliographical note

    Funding Information:
    This work was supported by the Leaping Research ( 20120005600 ) and Global Research Lab ( 2012055546 ) Programs provided by the National Research Foundation of Korea, the Next-Generation BioGreen 21 Program (Plant Molecular Breeding Center No. 201203013055290010200 ) provided by the Rural Development Administration, and by a grant from the Agricultural R & D Promotion Center ( 309017-05-HD140 ), Korea Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. It was also supported in part by the Human Frontier Science Program ( RGP0002/2012 ).

    Keywords

    • Arabidopsis
    • BFT
    • FD
    • FT
    • flowering time
    • salt stress

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Molecular Biology
    • Plant Science

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'The arabidopsis floral repressor BFT delays flowering by competing with FT for FD binding under high salinity'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this