RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Natural Variants of ELF3 Affect Thermomorphogenesis by Transcriptionally Modulating PIF4-Dependent Auxin Response Genes
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 015305
DO 10.1101/015305
A1 Anja Raschke
A1 Carla Ibañez
A1 Kristian Karsten Ullrich
A1 Muhammad Usman Anwer
A1 Sebastian Becker
A1 Annemarie Glöckner
A1 Jana Trenner
A1 Kathrin Denk
A1 Bernhard Saal
A1 Xiaodong Sun
A1 Min Ni
A1 Seth Jon Davis
A1 Carolin Delker
A1 Marcel Quint
YR 2015
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2015/03/19/015305.abstract
AB Perception and transduction of temperature changes result in altered growth enabling plants to adapt to increased ambient temperature. While PHYTOCHROME-INTERACTING FACTOR4 (PIF4) has been identified as a major ambient temperature signaling hub, its upstream regulation seems complex and is poorly understood. Here, we exploited natural variation for thermo-responsive growth in Arabidopsis thaliana using quantitative trait locus (QTL) analysis. We identified GIRAFFE2.1, a major QTL explaining ~18% of the phenotypic variation for temperature-induced hypocotyl elongation in the Bay-0 x Sha recombinant inbred line population. Transgenic complementation demonstrated that allelic variation in the circadian clock regulator EARLY FLOWERING3 (ELF3) is underlying this QTL. The source of variation could be allocated to a single nucleotide polymorphism in the ELF3 coding region, resulting in differential expression of PIF4 and its target genes, likely causing the observed natural variation in thermo-responsive growth. In combination with other recent studies, this work establishes the role of ELF3 in the ambient temperature signaling network. Natural variation of ELF3-mediated gating of PIF4 expression during nightly growing periods seems to be affected by a coding sequence quantitative trait nucleotide that confers a selective advantage in certain environments. In addition, natural ELF3 alleles seem to differentially integrate temperature and photoperiod cues to induce architectural changes. Thus, ELF3 emerges as an essential coordinator of growth and development in response to diverse environmental cues and implicates ELF3 as an important target of adaptation.