Roles of GIG1 and UVI4 in genome duplication in Arabidopsis thaliana

Endomitosis and endoreplication are atypical modes of cell cycle that results in genome duplication in single nucleus. Because the cell size of given cell type is generally proportional to the nuclear DNA content, endoreplication and endomitosis are effective strategy of cell growth, which are widespread in multicellular organisms, especially those in plant kingdom. We found that these processes might be differently regulated by GIGAS CELL1 (GIG1) and its paralog UV-INSENSITIVE4 (UVI4) in Arabidopsis thaliana. GIG1 and UVI4 may negatively regulate activities of anaphase-promoting complex or cyclosome (APC/C) ubiquitin ligase that acts as an important mitotic regulator. The gig1 mutation induced ectopic occurrence of endomitosis during somatic cell division, while it has been reported that uvi4 mutation resulted in premature occurrence of endoreplication during organ development. Overexpression of GIG1 and UVI4 dramatically increased the amount of mitotic cyclin, CYCB1;1, a well-known substrate of APC/C. Ectopic endomitosis in gig1 was enhanced by mutation in CYCB2;2 and suppressed by downregulation of APC10 encoding a core subunit of APC/C. Overexpression of CDC20.1, an activator protein of APC/C, further promoted the ectopic endomitosis in gig1. These findings suggest that endomitosis and endoreplication are regulated by similar molecular mechanisms, in which two related proteins, GIG1 and UVI4, may inhibit APC/C in different ways.