Summary information and primary citation

PDB-id
7cvq; SNAP-derived features in text and JSON formats; DNAproDB
Class
DNA binding protein-DNA
Method
X-ray (3.3 Å)
Summary
Crystal structure of arabidopsis co cct domain in complex with nf-yb2-yc3 and ft core1 DNA
Reference
Lv X, Zeng X, Hu H, Chen L, Zhang F, Liu R, Liu Y, Zhou X, Wang C, Wu Z, Kim C, He Y, Du J (2021): "Structural insights into the multivalent binding of the Arabidopsis FLOWERING LOCUS T promoter by the CO-NF-Y master transcription factor complex." Plant Cell, 33, 1182-1195. doi: 10.1093/plcell/koab016.
Abstract
Flowering plants sense various environmental and endogenous signals to trigger the floral transition and start the reproductive growth cycle. CONSTANS (CO) is a master transcription factor in the photoperiod floral pathway that integrates upstream signals and activates the florigen gene FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT). Here, we performed comprehensive structural and biochemical analyses to study the molecular mechanism underlying the regulation of FT by CO in Arabidopsis thaliana. We show that the four previously characterized cis-elements in the FT promoter proximal region, CORE1, CORE2, P1, and P2, are all direct CO binding sites. Structural analysis of CO in complex with NUCLEAR FACTOR-YB/YC (NF-YB/YC) and the CORE2 or CORE1 elements revealed the molecular basis for the specific recognition of the shared TGTG motifs. Biochemical analysis suggested that CO might form a homomultimeric assembly via its N-terminal B-Box domain and simultaneously occupy multiple cis-elements within the FT promoter. We suggest that this multivalent binding gives the CO-NF-Y complex high affinity and specificity for FT promoter binding. Overall, our data provide a detailed molecular model for the regulation of FT by the master transcription factor complex CO-NF-Y during the floral transition.

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