Fig. 6
Engineered poorly structured 3′ UTRs of FT induce early flowering. a Flowering phenotype of the indicated stages in different T2 transformants with selected poorly structured or highly structured 3′ UTRs in Col-0 background. At least three individual lines were employed for each transgenic construct to observe the flowering phenotype, with 40–50 plants cultivated for each individual line in two independent sets of experiments (upper and lower panels). Consistent results were obtained across the two independent sets. Plants were grown under long-day (LD, 16 h: 8 h, light: dark) photoperiod conditions. Scale bar, 2 cm. b Relative expression of FT levels in T2 transgenic lines. The data were presented as means ± SE (n = 3) biologically independent replicates. The relative FT expression was normalized to that of UBQ10. c Western blot analysis showed increased FT protein levels in T2 transgenic lines with the poorly structured 3′ UTRs (Col-0; PFT-FT-FM-pri-miR159a-3′ UTR and Col-0; PFT-FT-FM-pri-miR159a-T1-3′ UTR) vs the highly structured ones (Col-0; PFT-FT-FM-3′ UTR). Anti-Myc antibody was used to detect Myc-tagged FT protein. Col-0 samples served as negative controls. Actin was a loading control