Splicing Variation at a FLOWERING LOCUS C Homeolog Is Associated With Flowering Time Variation in the Tetraploid Capsella bursa-pastoris

Tanja Slotte, Hui-Run Huang, Karl Holm, Alf Ceplitis, Kate St. Onge, Jun Chen, Ulf Lagercrantz, Martin Lascoux

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The long-term fates of duplicate genes are well studied both empirically and theoretically, but how the short-term evolution of duplicate genes contributes to phenotypic variation is less well known. Here, we have studied the genetic basis of flowering tithe variation in the disomic tetraploid Capsella bursa-pastoris. We sequenced four duplicate candidate genes for flowering time and 10 background loci in samples from western Eurasia and China. Using a mixed-model approach that accounts for population structure, we found that polymorphisms at one homeolog of two candidate genes, FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC) and CRYPTOCHROME1 (CRY1), were associated with natural flowering time variation. No potentially causative polymorphisms were found in the coding region of CRY1; however, at FLC two splice site polymorphisms were associated with early flowering. Accessions harboring nonconsensus splice sites expressed an alternatively spliced transcript or did not express this FTC homeolog. Our results are consistent with the function of FLC as a major repressor of flowering in Arabidopsis thaliana and imply that non-functionalization of duplicate genes could provide an important source of phenotypic variation.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)337-345
JournalGenetics
Volume183
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2009

Bibliographical note

The information about affiliations in this record was updated in December 2015.
The record was previously connected to the following departments: Department of Cell and Organism Biology (Closed 2011.) (011002100)

Subject classification (UKÄ)

  • Biological Sciences

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