Species-wide gene editing of a flowering regulator reveals hidden phenotypic variation.
Genes do not act in isolation, and the effects of a specific variant at one locus can often be greatly modified by polymorphic variants at other loci. A good example is FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC), which has been inferred to explain much of the flowering time variation in Arabidopsis thaliana. We use a...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2025-06-01
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| Series: | PLoS Biology |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003226 |
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| author | Ulrich Lutz Ilja Bezrukov Rebecca Schwab Wei Yuan Marius Kollmar Detlef Weigel |
| author_facet | Ulrich Lutz Ilja Bezrukov Rebecca Schwab Wei Yuan Marius Kollmar Detlef Weigel |
| author_sort | Ulrich Lutz |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Genes do not act in isolation, and the effects of a specific variant at one locus can often be greatly modified by polymorphic variants at other loci. A good example is FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC), which has been inferred to explain much of the flowering time variation in Arabidopsis thaliana. We use a set of 62 flc species-wide mutants to document pleiotropic, genotype-dependent effects for FLC on flowering as well as several other traits. Time to flowering was greatly reduced in all mutants, with the remaining variation explained mainly by allelic variation at the FLC target FT. Analysis of FT sequence variation suggested that extremely early combinations of FLC and FT alleles should exist in the wild, which we confirmed by targeted collections. Our study provides a proof of concept on how pan-genetic analysis of hub genes can reveal the true extent of genetic networks in a species. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-da6a0a8f64c343fcb624289664caa4da |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 1544-9173 1545-7885 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-06-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS Biology |
| spelling | doaj-art-da6a0a8f64c343fcb624289664caa4da2025-08-20T03:13:21ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS Biology1544-91731545-78852025-06-01236e300322610.1371/journal.pbio.3003226Species-wide gene editing of a flowering regulator reveals hidden phenotypic variation.Ulrich LutzIlja BezrukovRebecca SchwabWei YuanMarius KollmarDetlef WeigelGenes do not act in isolation, and the effects of a specific variant at one locus can often be greatly modified by polymorphic variants at other loci. A good example is FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC), which has been inferred to explain much of the flowering time variation in Arabidopsis thaliana. We use a set of 62 flc species-wide mutants to document pleiotropic, genotype-dependent effects for FLC on flowering as well as several other traits. Time to flowering was greatly reduced in all mutants, with the remaining variation explained mainly by allelic variation at the FLC target FT. Analysis of FT sequence variation suggested that extremely early combinations of FLC and FT alleles should exist in the wild, which we confirmed by targeted collections. Our study provides a proof of concept on how pan-genetic analysis of hub genes can reveal the true extent of genetic networks in a species.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003226 |
| spellingShingle | Ulrich Lutz Ilja Bezrukov Rebecca Schwab Wei Yuan Marius Kollmar Detlef Weigel Species-wide gene editing of a flowering regulator reveals hidden phenotypic variation. PLoS Biology |
| title | Species-wide gene editing of a flowering regulator reveals hidden phenotypic variation. |
| title_full | Species-wide gene editing of a flowering regulator reveals hidden phenotypic variation. |
| title_fullStr | Species-wide gene editing of a flowering regulator reveals hidden phenotypic variation. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Species-wide gene editing of a flowering regulator reveals hidden phenotypic variation. |
| title_short | Species-wide gene editing of a flowering regulator reveals hidden phenotypic variation. |
| title_sort | species wide gene editing of a flowering regulator reveals hidden phenotypic variation |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003226 |
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