Investigation of maize INDETERMINATE1 interacting proteins: Implications for epigenetic control of the floral transition.

摘要

INDETERMINATE1 (ID1) regulates the floral transition in maize. ID1 is localized to immature leaves only, suggesting that it regulates production of a florigen. ID1 is a transcription factor with four zinc fingers, two of which (Z2 and Z3) bind to a specific consensus DNA sequence in vitro. Two zinc fingers (Z1 and Z4) do not playa role in binding DNA, but they may playa role in mediating protein-protein interactions. As transcription factors often are components of large regulatory protein complexes, a Yeast 2-Hybrid screen identified proteins that interact with ID1. Several putative interactors, a Jumonji-Iike protein (JMJ) and an ARGONAUTE4-like protein (AGO), have features that suggest epigenetic control of gene expression. Here I have used in vitro GST pull-downs and CoIP to further examine these interactions in vitro. The work presented here provides evidence that ID1 could control the transition to flowering by epigenetic changes of floral inductive genes.