Characterization of suppressors and enhancer of a clock mutation early flowering 3 (elf3) in Arabidopsis

Abstract

EARLY FLOWERING 3 (ELF3) plays key roles in the control of plant morphology, flowering time and circadian rhythms. However, it has not been elucidated how ELF3 protein accomplishes the multi-tasks. Also there has been less information on direct interactors for ELF3 and mutations that suppress the phenotypes of elf3.
In order to isolate suppressors and enhancers of elf3-1, heavy ion beams mutagenesis was performed using the elf3-1 seeds and M2 populations were screened under continuous light condition based on 3 phenotypes: flowering time, hypocotyl length and leaf size. According to these criteria, 7 suppressors and one enhancer of elf3-1 have been identified. These suppressor mutations were named suppressor of elf3 1, 3, 5, 7, 14, 15 and 20 (sel1, 3, 5, 7, 14, 15, and 20). We will discuss possible roles of these suppressor and enhancer genes in the multiple functions of ELF3.