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  • The EMBO Journal (2002) 21, 1360 - 1368
  • doi:10.1093/emboj/21.6.1360

Control of proliferation, endoreduplication and differentiation by the Arabidopsis E2Fa–DPa transcription factor

Lieven De Veylder1,4, Tom Beeckman1,4, Gerrit T.S. Beemster1, Janice de Almeida Engler1, Sandra Ormenese2, Sara Maes1, Mirande Naudts1, Els Van Der Schueren1, Annie Jacqmard2, Gilbert Engler3 and Dirk Inzé1

  1. Departments of Molecular Genetics and Plant Genetics, Flanders Interuniversity Institute for Biotechnology (VIB), Ghent University, K.L.Ledeganckstraat 35, Gent, Belgium
  2. Laboratoire de Physiologie Végétale, Université de Liège, Sart-Tilman, B-4000 Liège, Belgium
  3. Laboratoire Associé de l'Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (France), Ghent University, B-9000 Gent Belgium
  4. L.De Veylder and T.Beeckman contributed equally to this work

Correspondence to:

Dirk Inzé, E-mail: diinz@gengenp.rug.ac.be

Received 12 November 2001; Accepted 29 January 2002; Revised 21 January 2002

New plant cells arise at the meristems, where they divide a few times before they leave the cell-cycle program and start to differentiate. Here we show that the E2Fa–DPa transcription factor of Arabidopsis thaliana is a key regulator determining the proliferative status of plant cells. Ectopic expression of E2Fa induced sustained cell proliferation in normally differentiated cotyledon and hypocotyl cells. The phenotype was enhanced strongly by the co-expression of E2Fa with its dimerization partner, DPa. In endoreduplicating cells, E2Fa–DPa also caused extra DNA replication that was correlated with transcriptional induction of S phase genes. Because E2Fa–DPa transgenic plants arrested early in development, we argue that controlled exit of the cell cycle is a prerequisite for normal plant development.

  • Keywords:

    • Arabidopsis thaliana,
    • cell cycle,
    • cell differentiation,
    • E2F–DP transcription,
    • endoreduplication