A Distal CCAAT /NUCLEAR FACTOR Y Complex Promotes Chromatin Looping at the FLOWERING LOCUS T Promoter and Regulates the Timing of Flowering in Arabidopsis

作者：Shuanghe Cao, Roderick W. Kumimoto, Nerina Gnesutta, Alessandra Maria Calogero, Roberto Mantovani, Ben F. Holt · 发表于：The Plant Cell · 年份：2014 · DOI：10.1105/tpc.113.120352 · 被引用次数：327 · 研究领域：Plant Molecular Biology Research、Plant Reproductive Biology、Photosynthetic Processes and Mechanisms

For many plant species, reproductive success relies on the proper timing of flowering, and photoperiod provides a key environmental input. Photoperiod-dependent flowering depends on timely expression of FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT); however, the coordination of various cis-regulatory elements in the FT promoter is not well understood. Here, we provide evidence that long-distance chromatin loops bring distal enhancer elements into close association with the proximal promoter elements bound by CONSTANS (CO). Additionally, we show that NUCLEAR FACTOR Y (NF-Y) binds a CCAAT box in the distal enhancer element and that CCAAT disruption dramatically reduces FT promoter activity. Thus, we propose the recruitment model of photoperiod-dependent flowering where NF-Y complexes, bound at the FT distal enhancer element, help recruit CO to proximal cis-regulatory elements and initiate the transition to reproductive growth.