Shinichiro Aikawa a,b, Masaki J. Kobayashi c, Akiko Satake d,e, Kentaro K. Shimizu c, and Hiroshi Kudoh a,b,1
-Author Affiliations
aCenter for Ecological Research, Kyoto University, Hirano 2-509-3, Otsu 520-2113, Japan;
bDepartment of Biology, Graduate School of Science, Kobe University, Nada-ku, Kobe 657-8501, Japan;
cUniversity Research Priority Program (URPP) Systems Biology/Functional Genomics, Zürich–Basel Plant Science Center and Institute of Plant Biology, University of Zurich, CH-8008 Zurich, Switzerland;
dCreative Research Initiative “Sousei”, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 001-0021, Japan; and
ePrecursory Research for Embryonic Science and Technology (PRESTO), Japan Science and Technology Agency, 4-1-8 Honcho Kawaguchi, Saitama, Japan
Edited* by Johanna Schmitt, Brown University, Providence, RI, and approved May 17, 2010 (received for review December 10, 2009)
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Université Libre de Bruxelles
Laboratoire de Physiologie et de Génétique Moléculaire des Plantes
Abstract
Plants flower in particular seasons even in natural, fluctuating environments. The molecular basis of temperature-dependent flowering-time regulation has been extensively studied, but little is known about how gene expression is controlled in natural environments. Without a memory of past temperatures, it would be difficult for plants to detect seasons in natural, noisy environments because temperature changes occurring within a few weeks are often inconsistent with seasonal trends. Our 2-y census of the expression of a temperature-dependent flowering-time gene, AhgFLC, in a natural population of perennial Arabidopsis halleri revealed that the regulatory system of this flowering-time gene extracts seasonal cues as if it memorizes temperatures over the past 6 wk. Time-series analysis revealed that as much as 83% of the variation in the AhgFLC expression is explained solely by the temperature for the previous 6 wk, but not by the temperatures over shorter or longer periods. The accuracy of our model in predicting the gene expression pattern under contrasting temperature regimes in the transplant experiments indicates that such modeling incorporating the molecular bases of flowering-time regulation will contribute to predicting plant responses to future climate changes.
Arabidopsis halleri FLOWERING LOCUS C gene regulation natural temperature fluctuation
plant phenology modeling
Footnotes
1To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail:kudoh@ecology.kyoto-u.ac.jp.
Author contributions: S.A., K.K.S., and H.K. designed research; S.A., M.J.K., and H.K. performed research; S.A., M.J.K., and A.S. analyzed data; and A.S., K.K.S., and H.K. wrote the paper.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
↵*This Direct Submission article had a prearranged editor.
Data deposition: The cDNA sequences reported in this paper, AhgFLC, AhgFT, AhgAP1, AhgSOC1, AhgLHP1, AhgVIN3, and AhgVRN2 have been deposited in the GenBank database (accession nos. AB465585, AB465586, AB465587,AB465588, AB465589, AB465590, and AB465591, respectively).
This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.0914293107/-/DCSupplemental.
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