FUNCTIONAL STUDIES OF THE Arabidopsis thaliana TCP8 TRANSCRIPTION FACTOR

ALEJANDRA CAMOIRANO; DANIEL GONZALEZ; IVANA VIOLA

ROSARIO

Congreso; L Reunión anual de la SAIB; 2014

Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Bioquímica y Biología Molecular

Proteins of the TCP family are transcription factors that can be found only in plants and regulate many structural and developmental traits. Initially, they were thought to play a role in cell growth and proliferation but now it is known that they are also involved in the regulation of hormone homeostasis, the circadian cycle, germination, and senescence, thus regulating plant growth and development in response to both internal and external stimuli. In this work, we studied the function of TCP8, a member of Arabidopsis class I TCP subfamily. We found that plants that express TCP8 from the 35SCaMV promoter flower earlier than wild-type and have changes in the number and shape of leaves and in plant architecture. In agreement with these results, FT and SOC1. two genes involved in the promotion of flowering, showed increased expression in these plants. Expression studies using RT-qPCR indicated that TCP8 is expressed in roots, rosette and cauline leaves, and flowers along the entire plant life cycle. Plants transformed with a promoter:GUS fusion showed reporter activity mainly in meristems and vascular tissues. Our results suggest that this transcription factor regulates several aspects of plant development and architecture in Arabidopsis