Nonsense-mediated mRNA decay modulates FLM-dependent thermosensory flowering response in Arabidopsis

Sridevi Sureshkumar, Craig Dent, Andrei Seleznev, Celine Tasset, Sureshkumar Balasubramanian

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer-review

115 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Increasing global temperatures have an impact on flowering, and the underlying mechanisms are just beginning to be unravelled1,2. Elevated temperatures can induce flowering, and different mechanisms that involve either activation or de-repression of FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) by transcription factor PHYTOCHROME INTERACTING FACTOR 4 (PIF4) or the FLOWERING LOCUS M (FLM)SHORT VEGETATIVE PHASE (SVP) complex, respectively, have been suggested to be involved3-6. Thermosensitivity in flowering has been mapped to FLM5, which encodes a floral repressor7,8. FLM undergoes alternative splicing8 and it has been suggested that temperature-dependent alternative splicing leads to differential accumulation of the FLM-â and FLM-ä transcripts, encoding proteins with antagonistic effects, and that their ratio determines floral transition4. Here we show that high temperatures downregulate FLM expression by alternative splicing coupled with nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (AS-NMD). We identify thermosensitive splice sites in FLM and show that the primary effect of temperature is explained by an increase in NMD target transcripts. We also show that flm is epistatic to pif4, which suggests that most of the PIF4 effects are FLM dependent. Our findings suggest a model in which the loss of the floral repressor FLM occurs through mRNA degradation in response to elevated temperatures, signifying a role for AS-NMD in conferring environmental responses in plants.

Original languageEnglish
Article number16055
Number of pages7
JournalNature Plants
Volume2
Issue number5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 4 May 2016

Keywords

  • flowering
  • plant genetics
  • plant molecular biology

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