Analysis of Two Transcriptional Regulators that Affect Meristem Function Arabidopsis thaliana TERMINAL FLOWER2 and Picea abies APETELA2

Abstract: The aerial plant body is derived from undifferentiated cells in the shoot apical meristem that in Arabidopsis thaliana is active throughout the plant life cycle. Upon transition to flowering the activity of the meristem is altered and the meristem starts to produce secondary inflorescences and floral meristems instead of leaves. Both the activity of the meristem and the decision of when to flower are processes strictly regulated by several mechanisms. In this thesis I describe the function of two genes that are active in the regulation of meristem function and in the regulation of when to shift to reproductive development.First, the Arabidopsis gene encoding TERMINAL FLOWER2 (TFL2), homologous to HETEROCHROMATIN PROTEIN1, was isolated and characterised. Mutations in TFL2 result in plants that are dwarfed, flowers early, have reduced sensitivity to day length and terminate the inflorescence in an apical flower. As homologues from other organisms TFL2 is active in gene regulation by gene repression. I show that the gene affect flowering time by the autonomous and the photoperiod pathways, two of four floral inductive pathways. TFL2 act to repress the activity of genes that are promoters of floral meristem identity and interacts genetically with factors known to alter the chromatin state. Further tfl2 is shown to have altered levels of and response to auxin. All together this shows that TFL2 is active as a regulator of several different processes during plant development.Second, I have characterised and studied the function of three genes encoding APETALA2 LIKE proteins in Norway spruce (Picea abies). In spruce these genes are expressed in meristems and reproductive tissues. When constitutively expressed in Arabidopsis two of the genes delays flowering time and alter the function of shoot apical and floral meristems. Together this suggests a function similar to the Arabidopsis homologues.