Constitutive E2F expression in tobacco plants exhibits altered cell cycle control and morphological change in a cell type-specific manner

The E2F family plays a pivotal role in cell cycle control and is conserved among plants and animals, but not in fungi. This provides for the possibility that the E2F family was integrated during the development of higher organisms, but little is known about this. We examined the effect of E2F ectopically expressed in transgenic tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) plants on growth and development using E2Fa (AtE2F3) and DPa from Arabidopsis. E2Fa-DPa double transgenic lines exhibited altered phenotypes with curled leaves, round shaped petals, and shortened pistils. In mature but not immature leaves of the double transgenic lines, there were enlarged nuclei with increasing ploidy levels accompanied by the ectopic expression of S phase- but not M phase-specific genes. This indicates that a high expression of E2F promotes endoreduplication by accelerating S phase entry in terminally differentiated cells with limited mitotic activity. Furthermore, mature leaves of the transgenic plants contained increased numbers of small cells, especially on the palisade (adaxial) side of the outer region toward the edge, and the leaf strips exhibited hormone-independent callus formation when cultured in vitro. These observations suggest that an enhanced E2F activity modulates cell cycle in a cell type-specific manner and affects plant morphology depending on a balance between activities for committing to S phase and M phase, which likely differ between organs or tissues.