2. Academic Validation
  3. Nitric oxide delays floral transition in Arabidopsis by inhibiting histone deacetylases HDA5 and HDA6

Nitric oxide delays floral transition in Arabidopsis by inhibiting histone deacetylases HDA5 and HDA6

  • Plant J. 2025 Jul;123(2):e70379. doi: 10.1111/tpj.70379.
Wenwen Zhu # 1,  Lei Wang # 2,  Jinzheng Wang 1,  Ni Zhan 3,  Zhongtian Shi 1,  Yuying Sun 1,  Qiang Lv 1 4,  Yong Hu 1,  Fang Bao 1,  Ling Li 5,  Yikun He 1,  Yu Wang 1
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 College of Life Sciences, Capital Normal University, Beijing, 100048, People's Republic of China.
  • 2 College of Life Sciences, Shihezi University, Shihezi, 832003, People's Republic of China.
  • 3 State Key Laboratory of Plant Genomics, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, People's Republic of China.
  • 4 College of Life Sciences, Jilin Normal University, Siping, 136000, People's Republic of China.
  • 5 Department of Biological Sciences, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, Mississippi, 39762, USA.
  • # Contributed equally.
PMID: 40726229 DOI: 10.1111/tpj.70379
Abstract

Nitric oxide (NO), a reactive small molecule, plays a critical role in various developmental and physiological processes in living organisms. Previous studies by our group revealed that NO delays flowering in Arabidopsis by increasing transcript levels of the flowering repressor FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC). In this study, we further investigated the molecular mechanism by which NO regulates FLC expression. Genetic experiments demonstrated that NO-induced delayed flowering specifically depends on elevated FLC transcript levels. Chromatin Immunoprecipitation assays revealed that NO significantly enhances histone H3 acetylation at the FLC locus. Biochemical analyses further showed that NO reduces total histone deacetylase activity through S-nitrosylation of histone deacetylases HDA5 and HDA6. Additionally, we identified and evaluated potential S-nitrosylation sites on HDA5 and HDA6, revealing their effects on deacetylase activity and floral regulation. Collectively, our findings uncover a novel mechanism by which NO mediates epigenetic modification to modulate flowering in Arabidopsis. This study sheds light on the functional network linking NO signaling, epigenetic modification, and flowering.

Keywords

Arabidopsis thaliana; S‐nitrosylation; floral transition; histone deacetylases; nitric oxide.

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