Heterotypic transcriptional condensates formed by prion-like paralogous proteins canalize flowering transition in tomato

作者：Xiaozhen Huang, Nan Xiao, Yu-Pan Zou, Yue Xie, Lingli Tang, Yueqin Zhang, Yuan Yu, Yiting Li, Xu Cao · 发表于：Genome biology · 年份：2022 · DOI：10.1186/s13059-022-02646-6 · 被引用次数：45 · 研究领域：Plant Molecular Biology Research、Plant Reproductive Biology、RNA Research and Splicing

BACKGROUND: Paralogs that arise from gene duplications during genome evolution enable genetic redundancy and phenotypic robustness. Variation in the coding or regulatory sequence of paralogous transcriptional regulators diversifies their functions and relationships, which provides developmental robustness against genetic or environmental perturbation. The fate transition of plant shoot stem cells for flowering and reproductive success requires a robust transcriptional control. However, how paralogs function and interact to achieve such robustness is unknown. RESULTS: Here, we explore the genetic relationship and protein behavior of ALOG family transcriptional factors with diverse transcriptional abundance in shoot meristems. A mutant spectrum covers single and higher-order mutant combinations of five ALOG paralogs and creates a continuum of flowering transition defects, showing gradually enhanced precocious flowering, along with inflorescence simplification from wild-type-like to progressively fewer flowers until solitary flower with sterile floral organs. Therefore, these paralogs play unequal roles and act together to achieve a robust genetic canalization. All five proteins contain prion-like intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs) and undergo phase separation. Accumulated mutations following gene duplications lead to IDR variations among ALOG paralogs, resulting in divergent phase separation and transcriptional regulation capabilities. Remarkably, they retain the ancestral...