Involvement of rice Polycomb protein Emphasis Typ

Authors: JongKuk Na MiHye Seo InSun Yoon YeonHee Lee Kyun Oh Lee DoolYi Kim

Publish Date: 2012/05/13

Volume: 6, Issue: 4, Pages: 339-346

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Abstract

Seed development is a complex but orchestrated process that requires the finetuning of parentally governed gene expression which is regulated by Polycomb proteins Over the last decade various Polycomb proteins have been identified and functionally characterized in plants and it has been found that they form the PRC2 suppressor complex which is involved in various developmental programs including seed development In this study the function of the rice fertilizationindependent endosperm gene OsFIE2 which expresses a protein homologous to the Arabidopsis Polycomb protein FIE was characterized We also characterized OsEZ1/OsiEZ1 another key component of the PRC2 complex Both the OsFIE2 and OsEZ11 genes are strongly expressed in leaf and stem compared to other tissues including root anther ovary and ovule We further examined whether OsFIE2 interacted with OsEZ1 using a yeast twohybrid system Interaction analysis showed that OsFIE2 interacted with OsEZ1 but not with Arabidopsis MEA protein To examine the physiological roles of OsFIE2 35SOsFIE2 Arabidopsis lines were generated Transgenic plants with 35SOsFIE2 grew faster than wildtype plants during early development Importantly they produced bigger seed than the wild type indicating that OsFIE2 may play an important role in seed size In addition we generated pOsFIE2GUS plants to examine the spatial expression pattern of OsFIE2 GUS expression was detected in cotyledon but not in any other tissues suggesting that OsFIE2 expression may be required to suppress homeotic genes in cotyledonThis work was supported by a grant from the NextGeneration BioGreen 21 Program SSAC grant no PJ0081732011 Research Program for Agricultural Science and Technology Development Project No PJ008677 Rural Development Administration Republic of Korea

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