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Role of small RNAs in Vernalization

Reference	BBS/E/J/0000A199
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor Dame Caroline Dean
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors
Institution	John Innes Centre
Department	John Innes Centre Department
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	195,124
Status	Completed
Type	Institute Project
Start date	01/01/2005
End date	31/03/2008
Duration	39 months

Abstract

Plant growth and development show remarkable plasticity in response to changes in environment. Our understanding of these responses is poor but advances have been made in dissecting the mechanism of vernalization, the acceleration of flowering by a period of prolonged cold. Vernalization occurs at one stage of development and is then `remembered¿ until later in development. The epigenetic regulation of the Arabidopsis gene FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC), a strong floral repressor, is a major component of this molecular memory. But it is still not clear how prolonged cold initiates FLC repression and how specific domains of FLC as targets for histone modifications. An emerging concept is that small RNAs play major roles in repressing gene expression and guiding chromatin complexes to targets. The aim of this project will be to determine the role of small RNAs in the cold-induced repression of FLC and the cellular memory of vernalization. This will be achieved in a collaboration between the Dean (JIC) and Baulcombe (SL) laboratories, experts in vernalization/FLC regulation and small RNAs respectively and will provide a paradigm for a more general understanding of gene regulation in response to environmental changes. Small RNAs associated with vernalization will then be studied in Arabidopsis accessions with different vernalization responses (identified during the NERC Environmental Genomics programme), to uncover the molecular variation underpinning the adaptation of Arabidopsis accessions to varying winter lengths.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Closed Committee - Plant & Microbial Sciences (PMS)
Research Topics	X – not assigned to a current Research Topic
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	X - not in an Initiative
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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