Isolation and characterization of suppressors of the early flowering 3 in Arabidopsis thaliana

Abstract

EARLY FLOWERING 3 (ELF3) is a circadian clock protein with a major role in maintaining circadian rhythms in plants. In this work, elf3-101 was mutagenized by EMS in plants of the Landsberg erecta (Ler) background to isolate suppressors of elf3 and to understand the molecular mechanisms of flowering time controlled by ELF3. Two suppressors, sel106 (Ler) obtained from this screen and sel5 (Col) from a previous study, were chosen for further analysis. Genetic mapping, gene expression analysis, and sequencing identified sel106 and sel5 as new alleles of gi and fca, respectively. Genetic interactions between elf3 and gi and between elf3 and fca in the control of the floral activator FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) were also investigated. Six suppressors of elf3 were classified at least into four subgroups based on the expression of such floral regulators as GI, CO, FT, SVP, and FLC, and on their flowering times under LL, LD, and SD. This classification scheme is useful for the characterization of unidentified suppressor mutations. © 2010 The Japanese Society for Plant Cell and Molecular Biology.