Photoreceptor Regulation of CONSTANS Protein in Photoperiodic Flowering

Federico Valverde, Aidyn Mouradov, Wim Soppe, Dean Ravenscroft, Alon Samach, George Coupland*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1062 Scopus citations

Abstract

Many plants flower in response to seasonal fluctuations in day length. The CONSTANS (CO) gene of Arabidopsis promotes flowering in long days. Flowering is induced when CO messenger RNA expression coincides with the exposure of plants to light. However, how this promotes CO activity is unknown. We show that light stabilizes nuclear CO protein in the evening, whereas in the morning or in darkness the protein is degraded by the proteasome. Photoreceptors regulate CO stability and act antagonistically to generate daily rhythms in CO abundance. This layer of regulation refines the circadian rhythm in CO messenger RNA and is central to the mechanism by which day length controls flowering.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1003-1006
Number of pages4
JournalScience
Volume303
Issue number5660
DOIs
StatePublished - 13 Feb 2004

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