Abstract
The Arabidopsis PROTODERMAL FACTOR2 (PDF2) gene is required for epidermal differentiation durning plant morphogenesis. The overexpressed plants of the PDF2 gene by the control of the CaMV 35S promoter were found to delay flowering. To understand the molecular basis of a genetic network of flowering control, we analyzed the PDF2 overexpression plants. The PDF2 gene encodes the HD-ZIP START transcription factor. To identify the essential domains responsible for the late-flowering phenotype of the PDF2 overexpression plants, chimeric genes consisting of deleted fragments of the PDF2 cDNA expressed by the CaMV 35S promoter were transformed into wild-type plants. Furthermore, we investigated whether PDF2 interacts with the floral pathway integrators in the yeast two-hybrid system. To isolate mutants that suppress the effect of overexpression of PDF2, we screened an EMS-mutagenized population of 35S::PDF2 transgenic plants for early-flowering mutants. Here, these results will be presented.
