Abstract
Ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation pathway is known to be involved in varied regulatory processes of plant development. F-box protein is a component of SCF complex (Skp1, Cullin, F-box) that functions as an ubiquitin ligase(E3). At least, 568 F-box genes are present in Arabidopsis genome, while others such as Skp1 and Cullin consist of small family, (Kuroda et al. Plant Cell Physiol.43: 1073-1085(2002)), suggesting that the F-box protein plays a central role in specific recognition to the target protein that is to be degraded.
We isolated a late flowering mutant, F-box related to late flowering 1 (fbl1), from Arabidopsis F-box antisense line. FT transcription was decreased in the fbl1 background. In the 35S::FT fbl1 double mutant, the 35S::FT suppressed the late flowering phenotype of fbl1. From the lines of evidence, it is likely that the fbl1 mutation is not caused by autonomous promotion pathway but by long-day period promotion pathway.
