Abstract
The maize INDETERMINATE1gene, ID1, regulates the transition to flowering in maize. ID1 encodes a putative transcription factor which has four different types of zinc finger motifs. ID1 is the founding member of a family of a plant-specific zinc-finger protein that is defined by a highly conserved amino sequence (ID domain) including zinc fingers.
Searches of sequence data showed that there are sixteen, fifteen and thirteen of ID family genes in Arabidopsis,rice and maize, respectively.
Comparison of ID domain of these family proteins revealed that ID1 is distinct from other ID family proteins by having a longer spacer between the first and the second zinc finger.
In order to define the function of ID1, we analyzed the transcriptional activity of ID1 using yeast system and also examined whether the additional sequence between the first and the second zinc fingers of ID1 has effect on transcriptional activity.
