Reference "Autoregulation of FCA pre-mRNA processing controls Arabidopsis flowering time"

Reference ID

11281

Title

Autoregulation of FCA pre-mRNA processing controls Arabidopsis flowering time

Source

The EMBO journal, 2003, vol. 22, pp. 3142-3152

Authors (4)

Quesada-V	Macknight-R
Dean-C	Simpson-G-G

Abstract

The timing of the transition to flowering is critical for reproductive success
in plants. Arabidopsis FCA encodes an RNA-binding protein that promotes
flowering. FCA expression is regulated through alternative processing of its pre-
mRNA. We demonstrate here that FCA negatively regulates its own expression by
ultimately promoting cleavage and polyadenylation within intron 3. This causes
the production of a truncated, inactive transcript at the expense of the full-
length FCA mRNA, thus limiting the expression of active FCA protein. We show
that this negative autoregulation is under developmental control and requires
the FCA WW protein interaction domain. Removal of introns from FCA bypasses the
autoregulation, and the resulting increased levels of FCA protein overcomes the
repression of flowering normally conferred through the up-regulation of FLC by
active FRI alleles. The negative autoregulation of FCA may therefore have
evolved to limit FCA activity and hence control flowering time.