Long intergenic noncoding RNAs (lincRNAs) transcribed from intergenic regions of yeast and animal genomes play important roles in key biological processes. Yet, plant lincRNAs remain poorly characterized and how lincRNA biogenesis is regulated is unclear. Using a reproducibility-based bioinformatics strategy to analyze 200 Arabidopsis thaliana transcriptome data sets, we identified 13,230 intergenic transcripts of which 6480 can be classified as lincRNAs. Expression of 2708 lincRNAs was detected by RNA sequencing experiments. Transcriptome profiling by custom microarrays revealed that the majority of these lincRNAs are expressed at a level between those of mRNAs and precursors of miRNAs. A subset of lincRNA genes shows organ-specific expression, whereas others are responsive to biotic and/or abiotic stresses. Further analysis of transcriptome data in 11 mutants uncovered SERRATE, CAP BINDING PROTEIN20 (CBP20), and CBP80 as regulators of lincRNA expression and biogenesis. RT-PCR experiments confirmed these three proteins are also needed for splicing of a small group of intron-containing lincRNAs.

MYC2 is an important regulator for jasmonic acid (JA) signaling, but little is known about its posttranslational regulation. Here, we show that the MYC2 C-terminal region interacted with the PLANT U-BOX PROTEIN10 (PUB10) armadillo repeats in vitro. MYC2 was efficiently polyubiquitinated by PUB10 with UBC8 as an E2 enzyme and the conserved C249 in PUB10 was required for activity. The inactive PUB10(C249A) mutant protein retained its ability to heterodimerize with PUB10, thus blocking PUB10 E3 activity as a dominant-negative mutant. Both MYC2 and PUB10 were nucleus localized and coimmunoprecipitation experiments confirmed their interaction in vivo. Although unstable in the wild type, MYC2 stability was enhanced in pub10, suggesting destabilization by PUB10. Moreover, MYC2 half-life was shortened or prolonged by induced expression of PUB10 or the dominant-negative PUB10(C249A) mutant, respectively. Root growth of pub10 seedlings phenocopied 35S:MYC2 seedlings and was hypersensitive to methyl jasmonate, whereas 35S:PUB10 and jin1-9 (myc2) seedlings were hyposensitive. In addition, the root phenotype conferred by MYC2 overexpression in double transgenic plants was reversed or enhanced by induced expression of PUB10 or PUB10(C249A), respectively. Similar results were obtained with three other JA-regulated genes, TAT, JR2, and PDF1.2. Collectively, our results show that MYC2 is targeted by PUB10 for degradation during JA responses.

The transition from vegetative growth to floral meristems in higher plants is regulated through the integration of internal cues and environmental signals. We were interested to examine the molecular mechanism of flowering in the day-neutral plant tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) and the effect of environmental conditions on tomato flowering. Analysis of the tomato genome uncovered 13 PEBP (phosphatidylethanolamine-binding protein) genes, and found six of them were FT-like genes which named as SlSP3D, SlSP6A, SlSP5G, SlSP5G1, SlSP5G2 and SlSP5G3. 6 FT-like genes were analyzed to clarify their functional roles in flowering using transgenic and expression analyses. We found that SlSP5G, SlSP5G2 and SlSP5G3 proteins were floral inhibitors whereas only SlSP3D/SFT (SINGLE FLOWER TRUSS) was a floral inducer. SlSP5G was expressed at higher levels in long day (LD) conditions compared to short day (SD) conditions while SlSP5G2 and SlSP5G3 showed the opposite expression patterns. The silencing of SlSP5G by VIGS (Virus induced gene silencing) resulted in tomato plants that flowered early under LD conditions and the silencing of SlSP5G2 and SlSP5G3 led to early flowering under SD conditions. The higher expression levels of SlSP5G under LD conditions were not seen in phyB1 mutants, and the expression levels of SlSP5G2 and SlSP5G3 were increased in phyB1 mutants under both SD and LD conditions compared to wild type plants. These data suggest that SlSP5G, SlSP5G2 and SlSP5G3 are controlled by photoperiod, and the different expression patterns of FT-like genes under different photoperiod may contribute to tomato being a day neutral plant. In addition, PHYB1 mediate the expression of SlSP5G, SlSP5G2 and SlSP5G3 to regulate flowering in tomato.

CURLY LEAF (CLF), a histone methyltransferase of Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 (PRC2) for trimethylation of histone H3 Lys 27 (H3K27me3), has been thought as a negative regulator controlling mainly postgermination growth in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). Approximately 14% to 29% of genic regions are decorated by H3K27me3 in the Arabidopsis genome; however, transcriptional repression activities of PRC2 on a majority of these regions remain unclear. Here, by analysis of transcriptome profiles, we found that approximately 11.6% genes in the Arabidopsis genome were repressed by CLF in various organs. Unexpectedly, approximately 54% of these genes were preferentially repressed in siliques. Further analyses of 118 transcriptome datasets uncovered a group of genes that was preferentially expressed and repressed by CLF in embryos at the mature-green stage. This observation suggests that CLF mediates a large-scale H3K27me3 programming/reprogramming event during embryonic development. Plants of clf-28 produced bigger and heavier seeds with higher oil content, larger oil bodies, and altered long-chain fatty acid composition compared with wild type. Around 46% of CLF-repressed genes were associated with H3K27me3 marks; moreover, we verified histone modification and transcriptional repression by CLF on regulatory genes. Our results suggest that CLF silences specific gene expression modules. Genes operating within a module have various molecular functions, but they cooperate to regulate a similar physiological function during embryo development.