拟南芥中与抗寒相关的SPT基因
拟南芥中与抗寒相关的SPT基因
2010/08/17 00:46:09
8月12日，英约克大学和爱丁堡大学研究人员报告说，研究表明植物研究的模式植物——拟南芥在如果缺失一种基因，它会更好地生长。这一发现为延长农作物春秋两季的生长时间提供了新思路。成果发表与Current Biology杂志上。
他们共同发现一种代号为SPT的基因与拟南芥低温生长有关。实验显示，在低温环境下，没有这个基因的拟南芥植株，不但抗寒能力不会下降，而且比有SPT基因的拟南芥植株长势更好。
拟南芥是农作物培育研究方面的一种模式植物，它的很多基因与农作物的基因具有同源性。
研究人员史蒂夫·彭菲尔德说，这一发现对于某些农作物增产具有重要意义，如果能借助基因手段培育出在低温下长势更好的农作物，就能使农作物在春秋两季的有效生长时间得以延长并实现增产。
Current Biology doi:10.1016/j.cub.2010.07.028
SPATULA Links Daytime Temperature and Plant Growth Rate
Kate Sidaway-Lee, Eve-Marie Josse, Alanna Brown, Yinbo Gan, Karen J. Halliday, Ian A. Graham and Steven Penfield
Plants exhibit a wide variety of growth rates that are known to be determined by genetic and environmental factors, and different plants grow optimally at different temperatures, indicating that this is a genetically determined character. Moderate decreases in ambient temperature inhibit vegetative growth, but the mechanism is poorly understood, although a decrease in gibberellin (GA) levels is known to be required. Here we demonstrate that the basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor SPATULA (SPT), previously known to be a regulator of low temperature-responsive germination, mediates the repression of growth by cool daytime temperatures but has little or no growth-regulating role under warmer conditions. We show that only daytime temperatures affect vegetative growth and that SPT couples morning temperature to growth rate. In seedlings, warm temperatures inhibit the accumulation of the SPT protein, and SPT autoregulates its own transcript abundance in conjunction with diurnal effects. Genetic data show that repression of growth by SPT is independent of GA signaling and phytochrome B, as previously shown for PIF4. Our data suggest that SPT integrates time of day and temperature signaling to control vegetative growth rate.