The Arabidopsis thaliana F-box gene HAWAIIAN SKIRT is a new player in the microRNA pathway

PLoS One. 2017 Dec 15;12(12):e0189788. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0189788. eCollection 2017.

Abstract

In Arabidopsis, the F-box HAWAIIAN SKIRT (HWS) protein is important for organ growth. Loss of function of HWS exhibits pleiotropic phenotypes including sepal fusion. To dissect the HWS role, we EMS-mutagenized hws-1 seeds and screened for mutations that suppress hws-1 associated phenotypes. We identified shs-2 and shs-3 (suppressor of hws-2 and 3) mutants in which the sepal fusion phenotype of hws-1 was suppressed. shs-2 and shs-3 (renamed hst-23/hws-1 and hst-24/hws-1) carry transition mutations that result in premature terminations in the plant homolog of Exportin-5 HASTY (HST), known to be important in miRNA biogenesis, function and transport. Genetic crosses between hws-1 and mutant lines for genes in the miRNA pathway also suppress the phenotypes associated with HWS loss of function, corroborating epistatic relations between the miRNA pathway genes and HWS. In agreement with these data, accumulation of miRNA is modified in HWS loss or gain of function mutants. Our data propose HWS as a new player in the miRNA pathway, important for plant growth.

MeSH terms

  • Arabidopsis / genetics*
  • Arabidopsis / growth & development
  • Arabidopsis Proteins / biosynthesis
  • Arabidopsis Proteins / genetics*
  • F-Box Proteins / biosynthesis
  • F-Box Proteins / genetics*
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Plant
  • MicroRNAs / genetics*
  • Mutation
  • Phenotype
  • Plants, Genetically Modified / genetics
  • Seeds / growth & development
  • Signal Transduction

Substances

  • Arabidopsis Proteins
  • F-Box Proteins
  • HWS protein, Arabidopsis
  • MicroRNAs

Grants and funding

This work was supported by funds from the University of Nottingham (JR), the French Agence Nationale de la Reserche, grants: ANR-09-BLAN-006 (MB) and ANR-13-BSV7-0014 (MB). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.