Variation in the epigenetic silencing of FLC contributes to natural variation in Arabidopsis vernalization response
Abstract
Vernalization, the cold-induced acceleration of flowering, involves the epigenetic silencing of the floral repressor gene FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC). We investigated the molecular basis for variation in vernalization in Arabidopsis natural accessions adapted to different climates. A major variable was the degree to which different periods of cold caused stable FLC silencing. In accessions requiring long vernalization, FLC expression was reactivated following nonsaturating vernalization, but this reactivation was progressively attenuated with increasing cold exposure. This response was correlated with the rate of accumulation of FLC histone H3 Lys 27 trimethylation (H3K27me3). Thus, variation in epigenetic silencing of FLC appears to have contributed to Arabidopsis adaptation.
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Footnotes
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↵3 Present address: Département de Biologie, Moléculaire Végétale, Université de Lausanne, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
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↵4 Corresponding author.
↵4 E-MAIL caroline.dean{at}bbsrc.ac.uk; FAX 44-0-1603-450025.
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Supplemental material is available at http://www.genesdev.org.
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Article is online at http://www.genesdev.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/gad.405306
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- Received August 10, 2006.
- Accepted October 3, 2006.
- Copyright © 2006, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press