Abstract
Cool ambient temperatures are major cues determining flowering time in spring. The mechanisms promoting or delaying flowering in response to ambient temperature changes are only beginning to be understood. In Arabidopsis thaliana, FLOWERING LOCUS M (FLM) regulates flowering in the ambient temperature range and FLM is transcribed and alternatively spliced in a temperature-dependent manner. We identify polymorphic promoter and intronic sequences required for FLM expression and splicing. In transgenic experiments covering 69% of the available sequence variation in two distinct sites, we show that variation in the abundance of the FLM-ß splice form strictly correlate (R2 = 0.94) with flowering time over an extended vegetative period. The FLM polymorphisms lead to changes in FLM expression (PRO2+) but may also affect FLM intron 1 splicing (INT6+). This information could serve to buffer the anticipated negative effects on agricultural systems and flowering that may occur during climate change.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (SPP1530)
- Claus Schwechheimer
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (SFB924)
- Klaus FX Mayer
- Claus Schwechheimer
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Reviewing Editor
- Daniel J Kliebenstein, University of California, Davis, United States
Publication history
- Received: October 5, 2016
- Accepted: March 9, 2017
- Accepted Manuscript published: March 15, 2017 (version 1)
- Version of Record published: April 11, 2017 (version 2)
Copyright
© 2017, Lutz et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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