Epigenetic reprogramming of FLC

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The Dean laboratory has been investigating what controls the timing of flowering. We are using a model plant Arabidopsis thaliana to identify genes involved in controlling flowering as in this plant it is easy to clone genes based on a mutant phenotype. Over the years we have shown that a key player in the regulation of flowering is a protein called FLC. FLC prevents flowering by stopping the activation of a set of genes needed to make flowers. FLC expression levels are reduced by prolonged cold and then remain stably off through the rest of the life-cycle of that plant. This stable repression is caused by chromatin silencing of the FLC gene through a conserved mechanism involving Polycomb group proteins. Before the next generation the levels of this gene need to be reset to ensure the progeny also need vernalization for flowering. This process may have many parallels with epigenetic reprogramming in mammals / the process that went wrong in the cloned sheep Dolly. We have mutations that disrupt the reprogramming of FLC and wish to exploit these to identify the molecular mechanisms involved. We will explore any parallels between FLC resetting and the epigenetic reprogramming that occurs in the mouse germline through a collaboration with Prof. Azim Surani in Cambridge. Our work on FLC epigenetic reprogramming is likely to produce concepts relevant to gene regulation throughout biology.