可变剪切在植物成花转换中的作用

The Role of Alternative Splicing in Floral Transition

精确调控成花转换,确保植物在适宜环境下开花,对于植物的成功繁殖和物种繁衍至关重要。开花由多种分子机制在转录、转录后和蛋白质水平进行调控。可变剪切(AS)是一种普遍的转录后水平调控过程,可从单个基因产生多个转录本,从而丰富转录组和蛋白质组的多样性。大量研究表明,可变剪切在成花转换过程中发挥重要作用。根据发育和环境条件,AS能够影响mRNA的稳定性和/或蛋白亚型的功能,从而调控开花相关基因的功能转录本和/或功能蛋白水平。揭示成花相关pre-mRNA的AS作用将进一步增进人们对开花相关基因功能以及整个成花转换调控网络的认识。该文归纳了涉及成花转换的AS研究进展,并针对各个调控途径进行总结,以期为进一步研究植物AS和成花转换调控机制提供参考。

Precise regulation of floral transition, which ensures plants bloom in the suitable environment, is essential for the successful reproduction of plants. The flowering time genes are regulated by a variety of molecular mechanisms,including transcriptional, post-transcriptional and post-translational regulations. Alternative splicing is a universal molecular process at the post-transcriptional level that can generate multiple transcripts from a single gene, thereby enriching the diversity of the transcriptome and proteome. The accumulating evidence indicates that alternative splicing plays an important role in the floral transition. According to developmental and environmental cues, alternative splicing can regulate the levels of functional transcripts and/or proteins of flowering time genes by affecting the stability of mRNA and/or the function of protein isoforms. Therefore, revealing the roles of alternative splicing will further improve our understanding of the functions of flowering time genes and the whole regulatory network of floral transition. In this review, we introduce the research progress of alternative splicing in floral transition, and summarize from the various regulatory pathways, thereby providing a reference for further research on the regulatory mechanisms of alternative splicing and floral transition in plants.