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Temporal-Specific Interaction of NF-YC and CURLY LEAF during 1
the Floral Transition Regulates Flowering 2
Xu Liua,3, Yuhua Yanga,b,3, Yilong Hua,b, Limeng Zhoua,b, Yuge Lia, and Xingliang 3
Houa,2 4
a Key Laboratory of South China Agricultural Plant Molecular Analysis and Genetic 5
Improvement & Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Botany, South 6
China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, China 7
b University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China 8
ORCID IDs: 0000-0003-1970-0608 (X.L.); 0000-0002-3964-2372 (X.H.) 9
1 This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation 10
of China (No. 31301055), the Guangdong Science and Technology Department of 11
China (No. 2015B020231009), and Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong 12
Province (No. 2017A030313211). 13
2 Address correspondence to Xingliang Hou ([email protected]) 14
3 These authors contributed equally to this article 15
The author responsible for distribution of materials integral to the findings 16
presented in this article in accordance with the policy described in the Instructions for 17
Authors (www.plantphysiol.org) is: Xingliang Hou ([email protected]) 18
Author Contributions: X.L. and X.H. designed the research. X.L., Y.Y., Y.H., L.Z., 19
and Y. L. performed the research. X.L. Y.Y., and X.H. analyzed the data. X.L. and 20
X.H. wrote the paper 21
Short title: NF-YC and CLF interact to regulate flowering 22
One-sentence summary: NF-YC proteins interact with the histone methyltransferase 23
Plant Physiology Preview. Published on March 29, 2018, as DOI:10.1104/pp.18.00296
Copyright 2018 by the American Society of Plant Biologists
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CLF and prevent the tri-methylation of H3K27 on chromatin at the FT locus, thereby 24
allowing FT expression and the initiation of flowering.25
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ABSTRACT 26
The flowering time of higher plants is controlled by environmental cues and intrinsic 27
signals. In Arabidopsis thaliana, flowering is accelerated by exposure to long-day 28
(LD) conditions via the key photoperiod-induced factor FLOWERING LOCUS T 29
(FT). Nuclear Factor-Y C (NF-YC) proteins function as important mediators of 30
epigenetic marks in different plant developmental stages and play an important role in 31
the regulation of FT transcription, but the mechanistic details of this remain unknown. 32
In this study, we show that Arabidopsis NF-YC homologues temporally interact with 33
the histone methyltransferase CURLY LEAF (CLF) during the flowering transition. 34
The binding of NF-YC antagonizes the association of CLF with chromatin and 35
CLF-dependent deposition of H3K27me3, thus relieving repression of FT 36
transcription and facilitating flowering under LD conditions. Our findings reveal a 37
novel mechanism of NF-YC/CLF-mediated epigenetic regulation of FT activation in 38
photoperiod-induced flowering, and consequently contribute to our understanding of 39
how plants control developmental events in a temporal-specific regulatory manner. 40
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INTRODUCTION 42
Flowering is precisely regulated by environmental and endogenous signals (Andres 43
and Coupland, 2012). In Arabidopsis, a facultative long-day (LD) plant, flowering 44
signals are perceived and transmitted by different molecular pathways, including 45
photoperiod, vernalization, thermosensory, aging, autonomous, and gibberellins 46
pathways, which mostly converge to regulate the key flowering integrator gene 47
FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT). FT, the long-sought florigen, functions as a 48
long-distance signal to the shoot apical meristem where it diurnally binds to FD for 49
transcriptional activation of floral meristem identity genes (Kardailsky et al., 1999; 50
Kobayashi et al., 1999; Abe et al., 2005; Wigge et al. 2005; Corbesier et al., 2007). In 51
LD conditions, the main photoperiod-responsive regulator CONSTANS (CO) 52
promotes flowering by directly activating the FT and another floral integrator gene 53
SUPPRESSOR OF OVEREXPRESSION OF CO 1 (SOC1) (Putterill et al., 1995; Lee 54
et al., 2000; Samach et al., 2000; Yoo et al., 2005). In addition, FT could also be 55
regulated by important regulators involved in other flowering pathways, such as 56
FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC), FLOWERING LOCUS M variants (FLMs), and 57
PHYTOCHROME INTERACTING FACTOR 4 etc., to modulate flowering time 58
(Michaels and Amasino, 1999; Pose et al., 2013; Kumar et al., 2012). So far, recent 59
findings have suggested that FT exerts a central function in the flowering transition. 60
Flowering is genetically controlled by various epigenetic factors that activate or 61
repress transcription of flowering genes (He, 2012). In Arabidopsis, the Polycomb 62
Repressive Complex 2 (PRC2) specifically mediates the histone H3 Lysine 27 63
trimethylation (H3K27me3) that plays extensive regulatory roles in various 64
developmental stages including flowering (Holec and Berger, 2012). CURLY LEAF 65
(CLF) is a conserved component in PRC2, and loss-of-function of CLF causes early 66
flowering phenotype with curled leaves (Goodrich et al., 1997). Previous extensive 67
evidence supported that the FT upregulation is fundamentally required for the early 68
flowering of clf, and CLF retains FT repression through promoting the H3K27me3 69
deposition in FT chromatin (Jiang et al., 2008; Adrian et al., 2010). 70
Nuclear Factor-Y Subunit C (NF-YC), also termed Histone-Associated Protein 5 71
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(HAP5) or CCAAT Binding Factor C (CBF-C), interacts with NF-YB (HAP3/CBF-A) 72
to form a heterodimer analogous to the core histone 2A/2B dimer with the highly 73
conserved Histone Fold (HF) domain. The NF-YC/YB dimer in turn unites with 74
NF-YA (HAP2/CBF-B) for constituting the NF-Y heterotrimer that canonically binds 75
to CCAAT-box in eukaryotic promoter (Huber et al., 2012; Nardini et al., 2013). In 76
plants, NF-YC subunits are encoded by a multi-gene family and function as important 77
participants in flowering-time control (Petroni et al., 2012; Zhao et al., 2017; Swain et 78
al., 2017). Arabidopsis NF-YC homologues have redundant roles in FT activation of 79
photoperiod-dependent flowering by contributing to forming the canonical 80
NF-YC-YB-YA and specific NF-YC-YB-CO complexes, which recognize the distal 81
CCAAT-box enhancers and the proximal CO-responsive elements (CORE), 82
respectively, within the FT promoter region (Kumimoto et al., 2010; Cao et al., 2014; 83
Gnesutta et al., 2017). Recent studies have demonstrated that NF-Y factors recruit 84
different histone modifiers to regulate various developments in plants (Hou et al., 85
2014; Tang et al., 2017). However, how NF-Y mediates the epigenetic regulation of 86
FT transcription remains unknown. 87
In this study, we demonstrate a CLF-dependent epigenetic mechanism in the 88
NF-YC-mediated FT transcription regulation in Arabidopsis. NF-YC homologues 89
counteract the H3K27me3 deposition in FT chromatin by temporally interacting with 90
CLF to attenuate the association of CLF with the FT locus, thus derepressing FT 91
transcription under LD conditions. Collectively, our findings support that NF-YC 92
proteins function as important modulators of epigenetic marks controlling flowering, 93
promoting the understanding on how plants precisely control developmental events in 94
a temporal-specific regulatory manner. 95
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RESULTS 97
NF-YC interacts with CLF 98
To further investigate the molecular roles of NF-YC proteins, we performed a yeast 99
two-hybrid screening to identify the potential NF-YC-interacting epigenetic partners. 100
Interestingly, CLF, the conserved histone methyltransferase of PRC2, was found to 101
interact strongly with NF-YC3 and NF-YC9, and weakly with NF-YC4, in yeast (Fig. 102
1A). Then, the glutathione S-transferase (GST) pull-down assay showed that the 103
recombinant proteins of His-NF-YC3, His-NF-YC4, and His-NF-YC9 were 104
co-precipitated by GST-CLF fusion proteins but not by GST control, respectively (Fig. 105
1B), indicating the physical interaction between CLF and NF-YC proteins in vitro. 106
Since NF-YC9 could genetically replace the function of the other two homologues 107
(Liu et al., 2016; Tang et al., 2017), we chose NF-YC9 as the representative NF-YC 108
gene for further investigation. 109
According to the conserved regulatory domains in NF-YC and CLF (Holec and 110
Berger, 2012; Liu et al., 2016), we designed various truncated versions of NF-YC9 111
and CLF to identify the necessary domains required for the proteins interaction. This 112
result indicates that the highly conserved CXC-SET domain of CLF and 113
carboxy-terminal of NF-YC9 contribute to the protein interaction (Fig. 1C). 114
Bimolecular fluorescence complementation (BiFC) analysis was conducted in tobacco 115
(Nicotiana tabacum) leaf epidermal cells to examine the interaction between NF-YC9 116
and CLF in vivo. The fluorescence by NF-YC9-nEYFP together with cEYFP-CLF 117
was localized in the cell nuclei (Fig. 1D). Co-immunoprecipitation (Co-IP) analysis 118
using the nuclear extracts of 9-day-old seedlings (clf-28 nf-yc9-1 35S:GFP-CLF 119
pNF-YC9:NF-YC9-FLAG) further confirmed the binding of NF-YC9 to CLF in 120
Arabidopsis (Fig. 1E). Taken together, these data support the direct interaction 121
between NF-YC and CLF proteins in plants. 122
CLF is epistatic to NF-YC 123
As both CLF and NF-YC are involved in flowering control (Goodrich et al., 1997; 124
Kumimoto et al., 2010; Hou et al., 2014), but with little mutual regulation regarding 125
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transcriptional levels (Supplemental Fig. S1), the interaction between CLF and 126
NF-YC proteins let us to investigate whether these two proteins functionally associate 127
to regulate flowering. We examined the genetic connection between NF-Y and CLF by 128
introducing the nf-yc3-2 nf-yc4-1 nf-yc9-1 (nf-ycT) mutations into the clf-28 (clf) 129
mutant background. Under LD conditions, the clf nf-ycT mutants exhibited similar 130
early flowering and upward-curled leaves to clf mutants, whereas nf-ycT showed 131
extreme late flowering as reported previously (Fig. 2A and 2B; Kumimoto et al., 132
2010). Meanwhile, CLF mutation also rescued the late flowering phenotype in 133
loss-of-function mutants of NF-YBs (nf-yb2-1 nf-yb3-1), another subunit of NF-Y 134
involved in flowering control (Supplemental Fig. S2). These observations indicate the 135
genetic function of CLF in flowering control is epistatic to NF-YC/B genes. To further 136
test this, we examined the temporal expression of several flowering genes in various 137
genetic backgrounds. Both FT and SOC1 were significantly upregulated in Col wild 138
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type during the floral transition under LD conditions. Remarkably, the daily 139
expression of FT was downregulated in nf-ycT but highly upregulated in clf and clf 140
nf-ycT compared with that in the wild type (Fig. 2C; Supplemental Fig. S3), 141
supporting the epistatic role of CLF to NF-YC in FT expression. By contrast, SOC1 142
transcripts were decreased by nf-ycT in either the clf or CLF background, indicating 143
that CLF does not mediate NF-YC-regulated SOC1 expression (Fig. 2C). In addition, 144
CONSTANS (CO), encoding the main regulator of FT transcription, was hardly 145
regulated by NF-YC and CLF (Fig. 2C). FLC, SEP3, and AG genes are known as the 146
direct downstream targets of CLF and are repressed by CLF in flowering (Schubert et 147
al., 2006; Lopez-Vernaza et al., 2012). Our analysis showed that, compared with that 148
in wild type, expression of these genes was remarkably increased in clf and clf nf-ycT 149
but slightly changed (FLC) or not affected (SEP3 and AG) in the nf-ycT background 150
(Supplemental Fig. S4), indicating that it is unlikely NF-YC acts as the main regulator 151
of the CLF targets FLC, SEP3, and AG. Therefore, these results suggest that CLF and 152
NF-YC mediate flowering time primarily by regulating FT. 153
NF-YC mediates CLF-dependent H3K27me3 deposition 154
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CLF functions in tri-methylation of H3K27 at chromatin of flowering genes 155
(Goodrich et al., 1997; Schubert et al., 2006; Jiang et al., 2008). To learn whether 156
NF-YC affects epigenetic function of CLF, we examined the H3K27me3 levels at 157
several selected FT loci in Col, nf-ycT, clf, and clf nf-ycT plants by chromatin 158
immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assays (Fig. 3A). Notably, H3K27me3 marks in the FT 159
locus were increased in nf-ycT, whereas loss of CLF significantly reduced the levels 160
of H3K27me3 in both the nf-ycT and wild-type background (Fig. 3B). Furthermore, 161
we examined the deposition of H3K27me3 at the selected FLC, AG, and SOC1 loci. 162
Consistent with the expression analysis, H3K27me3 levels in FLC and AG were 163
attenuated in clf and clf nf-ycT (Fig. 2C and 3B). By contrast, loss of NF-YC had only 164
a slight effect or no effect on H3K27me3 deposition in FLC and AG, respectively, but 165
enhanced that in SOC1 (Fig. 3B). These results indicate that NF-YC may repress 166
CLF-dependent H3K27me3 deposition to specifically regulate FT transcription. 167
Loss of NF-YC function elevates CLF enrichment and H3K27me3 deposition on 168
FT chromatin 169
We created nf-ycT clf GFP-CLF by introducing the nf-ycT mutations into clf 170
35S:GFP-CLF plants. Under LD conditions, GFP-CLF could rescue the early 171
flowering phenotype of clf, and nf-ycT clf GFP-CLF exhibited a late flowering 172
phenotype similar to that in nf-ycT (Fig. 4A), suggesting that CLF activity is required 173
for late flowering caused by NF-YC loss of function. We next conducted ChIP assays 174
to examine the association of GFP-CLF with target chromatin in clf GFP-CLF and 175
nf-ycT clf GFP-CLF plants. NF-YC loss of function significantly promoted the 176
binding of GFP-CLF to FT, which was concomitant with higher H3K27me3 levels of 177
FT chromatin and lower FT expression in nf-ycT clf GFP-CLF compared with that in 178
clf GFP-CLF plants (Fig. 4B, 4C and 4D). By contrast, no difference was observed 179
regarding GFP-CLF binding to SOC1 between clf GFP-CLF and nf-ycT clf GFP-CLF 180
plants (Fig. 4C and 4D). These results confirm the repressive role of NF-YC on CLF 181
binding to FT chromatin. 182
Temporal-specific interaction of NF-YC and CLF regulates CLF-dependent 183
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H3K27me3 deposition in FT chromatin 184
Generally, plants do not immediately enter the flowering transition without 185
undergoing a period of vegetative development. We hence wondered how NF-YC 186
represses CLF function via protein-protein interaction to facilitate flowering at right 187
time. To address this, the temporal pattern of NF-YC-CLF interaction was 188
investigated by a time-course ChIP analysis using developing clf GFP-CLF and 189
nf-ycT clf GFP-CLF seedlings grown under LD conditions. As plant growth 190
progressed, both CLF binding and H3K27me3 deposition in FT gradually decreased 191
during flowering transition stage (9–11 days after germination) (Fig. 5A; 192
Supplemental Fig. S5). It is worth noting that NF-YC loss of function significantly 193
attenuated this declined pattern (Fig. 5A). Furthermore, ChIP assay with a transient 194
expression system showed that the binding of CLF to FT region was dramatically 195
decreased by the full-length NF-YC9 but not by the carboxyl-terminal deleted 196
NF-YC9 which fails to interact with CLF (Fig. 1C; Supplemental Fig. S6A and S6B). 197
These observations support that CLF function may be impaired by enhanced 198
interaction of CLF and NF-YC during flowering transition stage. One possibility is 199
that the varied interaction pattern could be triggered by increasing abundance of 200
NF-YC proteins during plant growth. However, we did not observe obvious increased 201
NF-YC accumulation during the flowering transition stage by immunoblot analysis of 202
clf nf-yc9 GFP-CLF NF-YC9-FLAG seedlings (Fig. 5B). In contrast to the declined 203
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CLF binding and H3K27me3 levels (Fig. 5A), time-course Co-IP analysis showed an 204
increasing interaction between CLF and NF-YC9 during flowering transition (Fig. 205
5B), suggesting other unknown factors determined by flowering signals might be 206
involved in the temporal regulation of NF-YC-CLF interaction. 207
208
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DISCUSSION 209
In yeast and mammals, NF-Y factors are deemed to make a functional link between 210
chromatin and transcription (Dolfini et al., 2012). Our recent studies have revealed 211
that NF-YC regulates plant developmental stages via mediating epigenetic 212
modifications on target genes (Hou et al., 2014; Tang et al., 2017), implying an 213
important function of NF-YC proteins in epigenetic regulation in plants. In the 214
photoperiod flowering pathway, NF-Y factors are crucial for the chromatin activation 215
of FT, which is simultaneously controlled by various epigenetic regulations (Gu et al., 216
2013; Cao et al., 2014; Bu et al., 2014). However, whether and how NF-YC mediates 217
the epigenetic regulation of FT transcription remains unknown. Here, we reveal a 218
temporal interaction of NF-YC with the histone methyltransferase CLF that 219
specifically counteracts CLF-dependent H3K27me3 deposition to derepress FT 220
transcription, thus promoting flowering under LD conditions. These results illustrate a 221
novel epigenetic regulatory model in the photoperiod flowering pathway and 222
expand our understanding on how plants precisely control developmental events in a 223
temporal-specific manner. 224
In eukaryotes, the PRC2 members are structurally and evolutionarily conserved, in 225
which CLF orthologs function as the core component to catalyze H3K27 methylation. 226
The conserved CXC and SET domains of CLF are necessary for H3K27 227
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methyltransferase activity and sequence-specific binding (Cao et al., 2002; Müller et 228
al., 2002; Ketel et al., 2005). For example, the gain-of-function allele clf-59, 229
harboring a Pro-to-Ser amino acid mutation in the CXC domain, results in 230
vernalization-independent early flowering in Arabidopsis (Doyle and Amasino, 2009). 231
Like CLF, NF-YC, with an HF domain close to the core histone 2A, is widely 232
conserved in eukaryotic species, and functions as a subunit of NF-Y heterotrimers 233
(Dolfini et al., 2012). In this study, the highly conserved CXC and SET domains of 234
CLF and carboxy-terminal of NF-YC9 contribute to their protein interaction (Fig. 1C), 235
implying that the combination of CLF and NF-YC may frequently present and 236
function in different eukaryotic species, or play distinct roles in various biological 237
processes. Upon our observations, the binding of NF-YC to the CXC-SET domain of 238
CLF impairs DNA affinity of CLF, and thus, restricting CLF function to target 239
chromatins. However, we cannot exclude the possibility that NF-YC might act as a 240
potential catalyzed substrate of CLF to mediate unknown regulations. 241
FT functions as a major output of the photoperiod pathway regulator CO when 242
plants respond to LD conditions (Andres and Coupland, 2012). Recent studies have 243
demonstrated that NF-Y factors are involved in the CO-FT regulatory cascade via 244
direct interaction with CO (Kumimoto et al., 2010; Gnesutta et al., 2017). The 245
identification of NF-Y-mediated chromatin looping at the FT locus and novel 246
sequence-specific NF-YB/YC/CO complex further support that CO regulating FT is 247
primarily dependent on NF-Y(C) functions (Cao et al., 2014; Gnesutta et al., 2017). It 248
was shown that CLF indirectly controls FT expression by epigenetically regulating 249
FLC in different aspects such as the autonomous pathway (Doyle and Amasino, 2009; 250
Lopez-Vernaza et al., 2012; Müller-Xing et al., 2014). However, CLF could directly 251
bind to FT chromatin and mediate H3K27me3 deposition in FT under LD conditions 252
(Fig. 5A; Jiang et al., 2008; Adrian et al., 2010). Similar to clf nf-ycT, clf co double 253
mutants also presented a clf-like early flowering phenotype (Pazhouhandeh et al., 254
2010). Considering the biological interaction between NF-YC and CLF presented in 255
this study, it is quite possible that CO-NF-Y module regulates FT transcription by 256
preventing CLF-dependent H3K27me3 deposition in FT chromatin. Consistently, clf 257
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could rescue the late flowering phenotype caused by loss of NF-YB2/3 function 258
(Supplemental Fig. S2); however, the question whether NF-YC represses CLF 259
together with NF-YA/B and CO to facilitate flowering requires further investigation. 260
Besides FT, SOC1 acts as another important integrator in flowering control (Lee 261
et al., 2000; Samach et al., 2000). Our previous study showed that SOC1 is directly 262
regulated by CO-NF-Y via the recruitment of a H3K27 demethylase RELATIVE OF 263
EARLY FLOWERING 6 (REF6) under LD conditions (Hou et al., 2014). Although 264
H3K27me3 levels in SOC1 decreases during flowering transition, we did not observe 265
that CLF affects SOC1 gene expression in this study (Fig. 2C), suggesting NF-YC 266
mediates H3K27me3 deposition in SOC1 chromatin primarily by recruiting REF6 267
rather than impairing CLF activity. In addition, we detected gene expression and 268
H3K27me3 levels of FLC, SEP3, and AG genes, which are known as CLF targets 269
(Goodrich et al., 1997; Schubert et al., 2006; Lopez-Vernaza et al., 2012). The results 270
showed that these genes were hardly regulated by NF-YC, implying other factors but 271
not NF-YC might be involved in their regulations by CLF. Furthermore, since the 272
dynamics of H3K27me3 mark regulated by CLF at many genomic loci may only be 273
detected in specific tissues and at specific developmental stages (Liu et al., 2016), it is 274
possible that the NF-YC-CLF module could also contribute to the precise control of 275
other developmental events. 276
In addition to H3K27me3, other histone modifications such as H3K4me3 and 277
histone acetylation are also involved in the regulation of flowering (He et al., 2003; 278
Engelhorn et al., 2017). Generally, repressive H3K27me3 and activation-related 279
H3K4me3 oppositely regulate spatial and temporal expression of genes during 280
specific developmental processes. A recent genome-wide study revealed that the 281
H3K4me3 deposition prevails over H3K27me3 whereas H3K27me3 reduction occurs 282
later during early flower morphogenesis (Engelhorn et al., 2017). Since NF-YC 283
functions with CO to promote FT transcription, whereas CO activates FT by 284
recruiting MRG1/2 proteins, the H3K4me3/H3K36me3 readers (Kumimoto et al., 285
2010; Bu et al., 2014), it could be speculated that H3K4me3 modification might be 286
involved in NF-YC-mediated flowering control. It was reported that several histone 287
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deacetylases (HDAs) regulate flowering by transcriptional repression of flowering 288
repressor genes such as FLC, MAF1, MAF4, and MAF5 (Wang et al., 2014). Although 289
our previous work revealed that NF-YC regulates photomorphogenesis by 290
HDA15-mediated histone acetylation (Tang et al., 2017), no evidence supports that 291
NF-YC-HDA15 is involved in flowering regulation. However, it is worthwhile 292
investigating whether NF-YC regulates flowering via recruiting other HDAs related to 293
flowering response such as HDA6/9/19 (Wang et al., 2014). 294
It is intriguing that a temporal-specific interaction of NF-YC and CLF was 295
observed by time-course Co-IP assays (Fig. 5B). The increasing interaction during 296
flowering transition under LD conditions results in attenuated CLF binding and 297
H3K27me3 deposition in FT chromatin, which convincingly explains the 298
photoperiod-induced FT upregulation. In the photoperiod pathway, the periodic 299
change of CO protein abundance by light is well-known to underlie the rhythmical 300
expression of FT within a day. However, this does not fully explain FT transcripts 301
increasing day by day under LD conditions, which was previously attributed to FT 302
accumulation or other positive feedback regulations (Suarez-Lopez et al., 2001). Here, 303
the temporal-specific NF-YC-CLF module provides a plausible hypothesis for 304
increasing FT transcript abundance. In this scenario, FT may be induced by a 305
NF-YC-triggered decrease of H3K27me3 when seedlings are ready for flowering. 306
Because we did not observe a significant increase of NF-YC protein level during 307
flowering transition, it raises the question of how appropriate timing of NF-YC 308
interaction with CLF is regulated. We propose that other mediating factors or 309
post-translational modifications, which are induced by the flowering signals, may be 310
included in this process. Previous work reported a functional interaction between the 311
cullin-RING ubiquitin ligase (CUL4–DDB1) and the PRC2 complex (Pazhouhandeh 312
et al., 2010). CO is known to interact with NF-YC, and turnover of the CO proteins 313
are triggered by COP1-SPAs complexes, a central repressor of light signaling, in the 314
dark (Jang et al., 2008; Chen et al., 2010). In addition, it was reported that the 315
CUL4-DDB1 complex is required for FT expression and associates with the 316
COP1-SPA complex (Pazhouhandeh et al., 2010). The interaction of NF-YC-CLF 317
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may be mediated by CUL4-DDB1, COP1-SPA, or CO in a light-dependent manner, 318
which is worthwhile of future investigation. 319
Taken together, we reveal the temporal-specific regulatory module NF-YC-CLF, 320
through which NF-YC directly counteracts CLF activity to promote FT expression 321
and flowering at an appropriate time. These findings provide novel insight into the 322
molecular mechanisms of how plants precisely control specific development events 323
by temporal regulation of epigenetic factors.324
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MATERIALS AND METHODS 325
Plant Material and Growth Conditions 326
The plant materials nf-yc3-2 nf-yc4-1 nf-yc9-1 (nf-ycT) and nf-yc9 NF-YC9-FLAG 327
were described previously (Hou et al., 2014; Liu et al., 2016). clf-28 (SALK_139371) 328
seeds were obtained from the Arabidopsis Biological Resource Centre (ABRC). clf 329
GFP-CLF plants were generated by crossing 35S:GFP-CLF (Schubert et al., 2006) 330
with clf-28 in Col background. The nf-ycT clf GFP-CLF and clf nf-yc9 GFP-CLF 331
NF-YC9-FLAG plants were generated by crossing clf GFP-CLF with nf-ycT and 332
nf-yc9 NF-YC9-FLAG plants. Plant growth conditions were described previously 333
(Hou et al., 2014), the flowering transition time of Arabidopsis Col wild type grown 334
under which has been defined to occur during 7–11 days after germination (Liu et al., 335
2008). The average number of rosette leaves calculated from a minimum of 10 plants 336
at bolting was used as an indicator of flowering time. 337
Yeast Two-Hybrid Assay 338
The coding regions of NF-YC3, NF-YC4, NF-YC9, CLF, and truncated versions of 339
NF-YC9 and CLF were amplified and cloned into pGBKT7 (BD) and pGADT7 (AD) 340
vectors (Clontech), respectively. The primers used are listed in Supplementary Table 341
S1. Yeast two-hybrid assays were performed using the Yeastmaker Yeast 342
Transformation System 2 (Clontech). Yeast AH109 cells were co-transformed with the 343
selected BD and AD constructs. The yeast transformants were grown and selected on 344
SD/-Trp/-Leu or SD/-Trp/-Leu/-His/-Ade mediums. 345
BiFC Analysis 346
The coding regions of NF-YC9 and CLF were cloned into the pGreen binary vectors 347
containing C- or N-terminal fusions of enhanced yellow fluorescence protein (EYFP) 348
to generate 35S:NF-YC9-nEYFP and 35S:cEYFP-CLF constructs. Plasmids were 349
co-transformed into tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) leaf epidermal cell with 350
Agrobacterium tumefaciens strains (GV3101-psoup) as described previously (Tang et 351
al., 2017). The YFP signals were detected by the inverted fluorescence microscope 352
(Leica) in tobacco leaf grown for 48 h after infiltration, while DAPI 353
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18
(4′,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole) staining was used as the nuclear localization 354
indicator. 355
Pull-Down Assay 356
Using the designed primers (Supplementary Table S1), the coding regions of NF-YC3, 357
NF-YC4, NF-YC9, and CLF were amplified and cloned into the pQE30 (QIAGEN) 358
and pGEX-4T-1 (Pharmacia) vectors to produce His-NF-YC3, His-NF-YC4, 359
His-NF-YC9, and GST-CLF constructs, respectively. These GST and His recombinant 360
constructs and the empty pGEX-4T-1 plasmid were transformed into E. coli Rosetta 361
cells and then recombinant protein expression was induced by 362
isopropyl-β-d-thiogalactoside (IPTG, Sigma). The purified His-NF-YC3, 363
His-NF-YC4, and His-NF-YC9 proteins were incubated with immobilized GST or 364
GST-CLF using Glutathione Sepharose beads (Amersham Biosciences) and analyzed 365
using immunoblots as described previously (Liu et al., 2016). 366
Co-Immunoprecipitation Assay 367
The clf nf-yc9 GFP-CLF NF-YC9-FLAG seedlings grown in LD conditions were 368
harvested at the indicated growth stages and ground in liquid nitrogen. Nuclear 369
proteins were extracted as previously described (Hou et al., 2014) and then incubated 370
with Protein G PLUS/Protein A-Agarose Suspension (IP10, CALBIOCHEN) plus 371
anti-GFP antibody (ab290, Abcam) or preimmune serum (immunoglobulin G, IgG) in 372
the co-immunoprecipitation buffer (50 mM HEPES pH 7.5, 150 mM KCl, 10 mM 373
ZnSO4, 5 mM MgCl2, and 1% Triton X-100) at 4°C overnight. After 374
immunoprecipitation, the beads were washed and eluted with SDS loading buffer. The 375
precipitated proteins were resolved by SDS-PAGE and immune-detected by anti-GFP 376
and anti-FLAG (F3165, Sigma) antibodies. 377
Gene Expression Analysis 378
Various seedlings grown in LD conditions were harvested at the indicated growth 379
stages for total RNA extracting using the E.Z.N.A. Total RNA Kit I (Omega) and 380
reverse transcribed to cDNA using MMLV-RTase (Promega). Quantitative real-time 381
PCR (qPCR) was performed using a LightCycler 480 thermal cycler system (Roche) 382
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19
with KAPA SYBR Fast qPCR Kit Master Mix (KAPA BIO). The difference between 383
the cycle threshold (Ct) of target genes and the Ct of the control gene was calculated 384
by the relative quantification method (2-△△Ct) and used to evaluate quantitative 385
variation. The primers used for gene expression analysis are listed in Supplementary 386
Table S1. All expression analyses were performed with at least three biological 387
replicates (Three replicates of samples were taken from a same batch of seedlings, and 388
total RNA was extracted from the pooled 3~5 seedlings in per independent replicate. 389
The above experiments were independently performed thrice at least and the 390
representative results were shown). The p-value in data statistics was calculated by 391
two-tail Student’s t-test and one-way ANOVA. 392
ChIP Assay 393
ChIP assays were primarily performed as previously described (Hou et al., 2014). The 394
clf GFP-CLF and nf-ycT clf GFP-CLF seedlings grown in LD conditions were 395
collected at the indicated growth stages and fixed for 40 min in 1% formaldehyde. 396
Then, the nuclear proteins were extracted, and chromatin was isolated and sonicated 397
to create DNA fragments approximately 500 bp in length on average. After that, the 398
sonicated chromatin was immunoprecipitated by GFP-Trap (ChromoTek) or Protein G 399
PLUS agarose (16-201, Millipore) plus H3K27me3 antibody (07-449, Millipore) at 400
4°C overnight, and the remaining chromatin was used as an input control. The 401
precipitated DNA was recovered and quantified by qPCR with KAPA SYBR Fast 402
qPCR Kit Master Mix (KAPA BIO). Relative ChIP enrichment was calculated by 403
normalizing the amount of a target DNA fragment against that of a Cinful-like 404
genomic fragment and then against the respective input DNA amount. The primers 405
used for ChIP assay are listed in Supplementary Table S1. All ChIP analyses were 406
performed in three biological replicates (Three replicates of samples were taken from 407
a same batch of seedlings, and chromatins were extracted from the pooled 20-30 408
seedlings in per replicate. The above experiments were independently performed 409
thrice at least and the representative results were shown). The p-value in data statistics 410
was calculated by two-tail Student’s t-test and one-way ANOVA. 411
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20
Accession Numbers 412
NF-YC3 (AT1G54830), NF-YC4 (AT5G63470), NF-YC9 (AT1G08970), CLF 413
(AT2G23380), CO (AT5G15840), FT (AT1G65480), FLC (AT5G10140), AG 414
(AT4G18960), SEP3 (AT1G24260), TUB2 (AT5G62690), Cinful-like (AT4G03770), 415
ACT2 (AT5G09810). 416
417
Supplemental Data 418
The following supplemental materials are available. 419
Supplemental Figure S1. Expression analysis of NF-YC3, NF-YC4, NF-YC9, and 420
CLF genes in nf-ycT, clf, and Col plants. 421
Supplemental Figure S2. Loss of NF-YB has a minimal effect on the early flowering 422
of clf mutants. 423
Supplemental Figure S3. Quantitative analysis of FT gene circadian expression in 424
nf-ycT, clf, clf nf-ycT, and Col plants. 425
Supplemental Figure S4. Expression analysis of FLC, AG, and SEP3 genes in nf-ycT, 426
clf, clf nf-ycT, and Col plants. 427
Supplemental Figure. S5. Time-course ChIP analysis of GFP-CLF binding (upper) 428
and H3K27me3 levels (below) at the ACT2 locus. 429
Supplemental Figure S6. ChIP analysis of CLF binding to the FT locus in the 430
presence of the carboxyl-terminal deleted NF-YC9. 431
Supplemental Table S1. List of primers used in this study. 432
433
ACKNOWLEDGMENT 434
We thank the Arabidopsis Biological Resource Centre for providing the mutant seeds 435
used in this study. 436
437
FIGURE LEGENDS 438
439
Figure 1. NF-YCs physically interact with CLF in vitro and in vivo. A, Yeast 440
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21
two-hybrid assays show the interactions between CLF and NF-YC proteins. 441
Transformed yeast cells were grown on SD-Trp/-Leu/-His/-Ade and SD-Trp/-Leu 442
medium. B, Pull-down assays show the physical interaction between GST-CLF and 443
His-NF-YC fusion proteins in vitro. His-NF-YC proteins were incubated with 444
immobilized GST or GST-CLF, and immunoprecipitated fractions were detected by 445
anti-His and anti-GST antibodies, respectively. Arrows indicate the specific bands of 446
GST-CLF or GST; the arrowhead indicates the nonspecific bands. C, The domains 447
required for the interaction of CLF and NF-YC proteins. Sketches show the domains 448
of NF-YC9 and CLF and their various deletions. Yeast two-hybrid assays show the 449
interactions between CLF, NF-YC9 and their derivatives. Transformed yeast cells 450
were grown on SD-Trp/-Leu/-His/-Ade and SD-Trp/-Leu medium. D, BiFC analysis 451
of the interaction between NF-YC9-nEYFP and cEYFP-CLF in tobacco leaf 452
epidermal cells. The 4′,6-diamino-2-phenylindol (DAPI) staining indicates the 453
nucleus. Scale bar is 20 μm. E, In vivo interaction of NF-YC9 and CLF in Arabidopsis. 454
Plant nuclear extracts from 9-old-day clf nf-yc9 35S:GFP-CLF 455
pNF-YC9:NF-YC9-FLAG seedlings under LD conditions were immunoprecipitated by 456
either anti-GFP trap or preimmune serum (IgG). The co-immunoprecipitated proteins 457
were detected by anti-FLAG and anti-GFP antibodies. 458
459
Figure 2. Genetic analysis of interaction of CLF and NF-YC. A, The flowering 460
phenotypes of Col, clf, nf-ycT, and clf nf-ycT plants. The seedlings were grown 461
under LD conditions at 22°C for 28 days and selected for photographing. B, The 462
flowering times of Col, clf, nf-ycT, and clf nf-ycT plants under LD conditions at 22°C. 463
The number of rosette leaves in at least 10 plants at bolting was used as an indicator 464
of flowering time. Statistically significant differences are indicated by different 465
lower-case letters (one-way ANOVA, p < 0.05). C, Quantitative RT-PCR analysis of 466
FT, SOC1, and CO temporal expression in developing seedlings of Col, clf, nf-ycT, 467
and clf nf-ycT seedlings. The seedlings were grown under LD conditions at 22°C and 468
collected for RNA extraction at the 12th h in a 24h-period (16 h light / 8 h dark). The 469
TUBULIN 2 gene (TUB2) was used as an internal control. Data represent mean ± SD 470
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22
of biological triplicates. 471
472
Figure 3. ChIP analysis of H3K27me3 levels in the relative flowering genes in 473
various mutants. A, Schematic representation of the specific primer positions in the 474
FT, FLC, SOC1, and AG loci used in Fig. 3B, 4B, and 5A. Exons are represented by 475
black rectangles and upstream regions and introns by black lines; the primer 476
fragments used for amplification are indicated by gray lines. B, ChIP analysis of 477
H3K27me3 levels of the relative flowering genes in Col, clf, nf-ycT, and clf nf-ycT 478
plants. Plant nuclear proteins were extracted from 9-old-day seedlings under LD 479
conditions. Relative fold-enrichment values were calculated by normalizing the 480
amount of a target DNA fragment against that of a genomic fragment of a reference 481
gene Cinful-like, and then against the respective input DNA samples. The enrichment 482
of an ACTIN2 (ACT2) genomic fragment was used as the negative control. Data 483
represent mean ± SD of biological triplicates. Statistically significant differences 484
between Col and mutants are indicated by different lower-case letters (one-way 485
ANOVA, p < 0.05). 486
487
Figure 4. Analysis of NF-YC effect on the CLF enrichment and H3K27me3 488
deposition at FT loci. A, Late flowering caused by loss of NF-YC genes requires 489
CLF activity. At least 10 seedlings of Col, clf, nf-ycT, clf GFP-CLF, clf nf-ycT, and 490
nf-ycT clf GFP-CLF plants grown under LD conditions at 22°C were investigated for 491
flowering time determination. B, Quantitative RT-PCR analysis of FT gene expression. 492
The 9-day-old seedlings were grown under LD conditions at 22°C and collected for 493
RNA extraction at 12th hour in a 24 h period (16 h light / 8 h dark). C, ChIP analysis 494
of CLF binding to the FT locus (amplicons defined in Figure 3A). D, Analysis of 495
H3K27me3 levels in FT chromatin. The 9-day-old clf 35S:GFP-CLF and nf-ycT clf 496
35S:GFP-CLF seedlings were grown under LD conditions at 22°C and collected for 497
ChIP assay with anti-GFP and anti-H3K27me3 antibodies, respectively. Data 498
represent mean ± SD of biological triplicates. Statistically significant differences are 499
indicated by different lower-case letters (one-way ANOVA, p < 0.05). Asterisks 500
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23
indicate significant changes of enrichment fold between two genetic backgrounds 501
(Student’s t-test, p < 0.05). 502
503
Figure 5. Temporal pattern analysis of NF-YC and CLF regulating 504
CLF-dependent H3K27me3 at the FT locus. A, Time-course ChIP analysis of CLF 505
binding (upper) and H3K27me3 levels (below) in FT chromatin (amplicons defined in 506
Figure 3A). The seedlings of clf 35S:GFP-CLF and nf-ycT clf 35S:GFP-CLF were 507
grown under LD conditions at 22°C and harvested for nuclear protein extractions at 508
the indicated days. The percentages indicate the relative enrichment of the FT-I 509
fragment in clf 35S:GFP-CLF against that in nf-ycT clf 35S:GFP-CLF (designated as 510
100%). B, Co-IP analysis of temporal interaction between NF-YC9 and CLF in 511
developing seedlings. clf nf-yc9 GFP-CLF NF-YC9-FLAG seedlings grown under LD 512
conditions were harvested for nuclear protein extraction as indicated days, and then 513
immunoprecipitated by anti-GFP trap. The co-immunoprecipitated proteins were 514
detected by anti-FLAG and anti-GFP antibodies. 515
516
517
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