Coordinated regulation of floral transition by protein and long ncRNA components

项目概述：表观遗传机制使基因组能够适应发育和环境线索。开花是植物生命周期中最重要的发育过程之一。植物已经进化出复杂的调节网络来控制开花时间，以响应内源和环境条件。我们以花转化为模型系统来研究真核生物基因表达的表观遗传调控。最近在真核生物中对长链非编码rna （lncRNAs）的认识以及它们在各种发育过程中功能的越来越多的例子表明，lncRNAs在发育过程、致癌和其他人类疾病中发挥作用。尽管有一些典型的例子，lncrna的机制细节及其在发育中的潜在作用尚未得到很好的理解。我们最近的研究发现了植物中第一个功能性lncRNA，它是发育调节基因FLC的适当表观遗传沉默所必需的。在这里，我们试图了解lncrna在发育中作用的机制细节。我们的建议是阐明控制蛋白lncrna介导的发育基因表观遗传调控的结构和调控成分。我们的首要目标是围绕三个具体目标建立：1)鉴定和表征lncRNAs； 2)研究蛋白质和RNA组分协调调节发育基因的机制；3)利用遗传方法解决感知和测量环境变化（如寒冷）持续时间的机制，这是蛋白质-lncRNAs介导的发育基因表达调控的上游事件。我们剖析lncRNA介导的表观遗传调控机制细节的方法不仅有助于理解植物发育（如开花）的关键机制，而且有助于阐明真核生物中具有深刻进化根源的基因表达的表观遗传调控机制。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Coordinated regulation of floral transition by protein and long noncoding RNA components Project Summary Epigenetic mechanisms enable the genome to adapt to developmental and environmental cues. Flowering is one of the major developmental commitments in the plant life cycle. Plants have evolved intricate regulatory networks to control flowering time in response to both endogenous and environmental conditions. We use the floral transition as a model system to study epigenetic regulation of gene expression in eukaryotes. Recent recognition of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) in eukaryotes and growing examples of their function in various developmental programs indicate that lncRNAs play roles in developmental programs, carcinogenesis and other human diseases. Despite some well-characterized examples, mechanistic details of lncRNAs and their underlying roles in development are not well understood. Our recent study identified the first functional lncRNA in plants, which is necessary for the proper epigenetic silencing of a developmentally regulated gene, FLC. Here we seek to understand mechanistic details on the role of lncRNAs in development. Our proposal is to elucidate structural and regulatory components governing protein-lncRNA mediated epigenetic regulation of developmental genes. Our overriding goals are built around three specific aims: 1) Identify and characterize lncRNAs, 2) Study mechanisms in which protein and RNA components are coordinated to regulate developmental genes, 3) Employ genetic approaches to address the mechanisms to sense and measure the duration of environmental changes (i.e. cold), which are upstream events of protein-lncRNAs mediated regulation of developmental gene expression. Our approach to dissect the mechanistic details of lncRNA- mediated epigenetic regulation will be useful not only for understanding a key mechanism of plant development (i.e. flowering) but also for elucidating the mechanism of epigenetic regulation of gene expression which has a deep evolutionary root among eukaryotes.