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Published on July 25, 2008; 10.1104/pp.108.124727

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Received June 13, 2008
Accepted July 17, 2008

Redundant Requirement for a Pair of Protein Arginine Methyltransferase 4 Homologs for the Proper Regulation of Arabidopsis Flowering Time

Lifang Niu , Yong Zhang , Yanxi Pei , Chunyan Liu , and Xiaofeng Cao *

State Key Laboratory of Plant Genomics and National Center for Plant Gene Research, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China 100101; Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China, 100039; College of Life Science and Technology, Shanxi University, Taiyuan, China, 030006

* Corresponding author; email: xfcao{at}genetics.ac.cn.

CARM1 (coactivator-associated arginine methyltransferase)/PRMT4 catalyzes asymmetric dimethylation on arginine, and its functions in gene regulation is understood only in animal systems. Here, we describe AtPRMT4a and AtPRMT4b as a pair of Arabidopsis homologs of mammalian CARM1/PRMT4. Recombinant AtPRMT4a and AtPRMT4b could asymmetrically di-methylate histone H3 at arginine 2, 17, 26 and myelin basic protein (MBP) in vitro. Both AtPRMT4a and AtPRMT4b exhibited nuclear as well as cytoplasmic distribution and were expressed ubiquitously in all tissues throughout development. Glutathione S-transferase (GST) pull-down assays revealed that AtPRMT4a and AtPRMT4b could form homo- and hetero-dimers in vitro, and formation of the hetero-dimer was further confirmed by bimolecular fluorescence complementation (BiFC). Simultaneous lesions in AtPRMT4a and AtPRMT4b genes led to delayed flowering whereas single mutations in either AtPRMT4a or AtPRMT4b did not cause major developmental defects, indicating the redundancy of AtPRMT4a and AtPRMT4b. Genetic analysis also indicated that atprmt4a atprmt4b double mutants phenocopied autonomous-pathway mutants. Finally, we found that asymmetric methylation at arginine 17 of histone H3 was greatly reduced in atprmt4a atprmt4b double mutants. Taken together, our results demonstrate that AtPRMT4a and AtPRMT4b are required for proper regulation of flowering time mainly through the FLC-dependent pathway.




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