Natural variation in vernalization response of Arabidopsis accessions

迪恩实验室正在研究开花的分子控制。我们使用了拟南芥优良的遗传系统，因为它很容易克隆控制许多过程的基因，只需有一个突变(基因中的一个损伤)。我们重点研究了为什么以及如何持续的寒冷影响开花，这一过程被称为春化。在自然界中，植物在冬天经历长期的寒冷，许多植物直到经历了这种长期的寒冷才会开花。这是一种适应，以确保在春季开花，此时条件有利于最大限度的开花和结实。许多控制这一过程的基因现在已经被克隆，所以在这个计划中，我们想要研究它们的功能在拟南芥适应不同气候的过程中发生了什么变化。我们正在使用从北极圈边缘的纬度范围内收集的拟南芥种质。与从英国采集的植物相比，这些植物需要更长的冷期来加速开花。我们用这些不同的植物进行杂交，并分析了它们的后代的开花和春化反应。这表明春化过程中的自然变异是4-5个基因等位基因变异的结果。我们现在想确定这些基因是什么，了解发生了什么变化，以及这些变化是如何影响开花行为的。我们还希望与种群和生态遗传学专家合作，确定这些变化是否已经在全球范围内的拟南芥种群中传播，并了解这些变化在不同环境条件下为植物带来的好处。

The Dean laboratory is investigating the molecular control of flowering. We use the excellent genetic system of Arabidopsis thaliana as it is easy to clone genes controlling many processes based only on having a mutation (a lesion in the gene). We have focused on why and how prolonged cold influences flowering, a process called vernalization. In nature, plants experience prolonged cold during winter and many plants do not flower until they have experienced this prolonged cold. This is an adaptation to ensure flowering in spring when conditions are favourable for maximal flower production and seed set. Many genes controlling this process have now been cloned so in this proposal we want to investigate how their function has changed during adaptation of Arabidopsis to different climates. We are working with Arabidopsis accessions collected from a range of latitudes that extend up to the edge of the Arctic Circle. These plants need much longer periods of cold to accelerate flowering than ones collected from the UK. We have made crosses between these different plants and have analysed the flowering and vernalization response of their progeny. This has indicated that the natural variation in vernalization is the result of allelic variation of 4-5 genes. We now want to identify which genes these are, understand what changes have occurred and how those affect the flowering behaviour. In collaboration with experts in population and ecological genetics, we also want to determine if those changes have spread in the worldwide Arabidopsis population and understand how much advantage those changes confer to the plants in the different environmental conditions.