R-Loop Stabilization Represses Antisense Transcription at the Arabidopsis FLC Locus

• DOI: 10.1126/science.1234848
• Publication Date: 2013-05-02T23:44:39Z
• Authors: Qianwen Sun; Tibor Csorba; Konstantina Skour...; Nicholas J. Proud...; Caroline Dean
• Keywords: Homeodomain Proteins; DNA, Plant; Transcription, Genetic; Arabidopsis Proteins; Molecular Sequence Data; Arabidopsis; DNA, Single-Stranded; MADS Domain Proteins; Chromatin; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; RNA, Plant; Transcription Termination, Genetic; Nucleic Acid Conformation; RNA, Antisense; RNA, Long Noncoding; Amino Acid Sequence; Promoter Regions, Genetic; Protein Binding

Making Antisense of Flowering

The recent discovery of biological roles for long noncoding RNAs raises important questions as to how they are themselves regulated.

Sun et al.

(p. 619 ) adopted a genetic approach to identify regulators of COOLAIR —a set of antisense transcripts from the locus encoding the major Arabidopsis floral repressor, FLC . Analysis of a mutant misregulating COOLAIR revealed a homeodomain protein that repressed COOLAIR expression via an R-loop covering the COOLAIR promoter. Thus, R-loop stabilization is an integral part of COOLAIR regulation, FLC expression, and flowering time.