ABSTRACT
Highly interactive signaling processes constitute a set of parameters intertwining in a continuum mode to shape body formation and development. A sophisticated gene network is required to integrate environmental and endogenous cues in order to modulate flowering. However, the molecular mechanisms that coordinate the circuitries of flowering genes remain unclear. Here using complemented experimental approaches, we uncover the decisive and essential role of HEAT SHOCK PROTEIN 90 (HSP90) in restraining developmental noise to an acceptable limit. Localized depletion of HSP90 mRNAs in the shoot apex resulted in low penetrance of vegetative-to-reproductive phase transition and completely abolished flower formation. Extreme variation in expression of flowering genes was also observed in HSP90 mRNA-depleted transformed plants. Transient heat-shock treatments moderately increased HSP90 mRNA levels and rescued flower arrest. The offspring had a low, nevertheless noticeable failure to promote transition from vegetative into the reproductive phase and showed flower morphological heterogeneity. In floral tissues a moderate variation in HSP90 transcript levels and in the expression of flowering genes was detected. Key flowering proteins comprised clientele of the molecular chaperone demonstrating that the HSP90 is essential during vegetative-to-reproductive phase transition and flower development. Our results uncover that HSP90 consolidates a molecular scaffold able to arrange and organize flowering gene network and protein circuitry, and effectively counterbalance the extent to which developmental noise perturbs phenotypic traits.
