Aubert D, Chen L, Moon Y H, Martin D, Castle L A, Yang C H, Sung Z R
Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
Plant Cell. 2001 Aug;13(8):1865-75. doi: 10.1105/tpc.010094.
Shoot architecture and flowering time in angiosperms depend on the balanced expression of a large number of flowering time and flower meristem identity genes. Loss-of-function mutations in the Arabidopsis EMBRYONIC FLOWER (EMF) genes cause Arabidopsis to eliminate rosette shoot growth and transform the apical meristem from indeterminate to determinate growth by producing a single terminal flower on all nodes. We have identified the EMF1 gene by positional cloning. The deduced polypeptide has no homology with any protein of known function except a putative protein in the rice genome with which EMF1 shares common motifs that include nuclear localization signals, P-loop, and LXXLL elements. Alteration of EMF1 expression in transgenic plants caused progressive changes in flowering time, shoot determinacy, and inflorescence architecture. EMF1 and its related sequence may belong to a new class of proteins that function as transcriptional regulators of phase transition during shoot development.
被子植物的茎结构和开花时间取决于大量开花时间和花分生组织特征基因的平衡表达。拟南芥胚胎花（EMF）基因的功能丧失突变导致拟南芥消除莲座状茎生长，并通过在所有节上产生单个顶花，将顶端分生组织从无限生长转变为有限生长。我们通过定位克隆鉴定出了EMF1基因。推导的多肽与任何已知功能的蛋白质均无同源性，除了水稻基因组中的一种假定蛋白质，EMF1与之共享包括核定位信号、P环和LXXLL元件在内的共同基序。转基因植物中EMF1表达的改变导致开花时间、茎的确定性和花序结构的渐进变化。EMF1及其相关序列可能属于一类新的蛋白质，它们在茎发育过程中作为阶段转变的转录调节因子发挥作用。
