LFY Family Introduction
The plant-specific LEAFY (LFY) protein is necessary and sufficient for the vital switch from vegetative to reproductive development in dicotyledonous plant species. LFY controls the production of the flowers, which are formed in lieu of secondary inflorescences from the flanks of the shoot apical meristem. Because LFY is required for all of the major features that differentiate flowers from inflorescence branches, it is referred to as a meristem identity gene. After initiating the meristem identity switch, LFY has a second role in the activation of the floral homeotic genes that specify the identity of organs in the flower . The two roles of LFY are separable genetically and molecularly . LFY exerts its developmental effects by means of transcriptional regulation; LFY has been shown to be a transcription factor in vivo. Despite the critical importance of this regulator, only three direct targets of LFY have been identified. Two of the targets, AGAMOUS and APETALA3, are floral homeotic genes that act directly downstream of LFY in flower morphogenesis. Only one known direct LFY target gene product, APETALA1 (AP1), acts in the meristem identity pathway (cited from PlantTFDB).

• Description on LFY family by TOBFAC at the University of Virginia.
• More description on LFY family by PlnTFDB from Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology.

General references:

• William DA, Su Y, Smith MR, Lu M, Baldwin DA, Wagner D. Genomic identification of direct target genes of LEAFY. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2004 Feb 10;101(6):1775-80. PUBMEDID:14736918

Notes: This family was missed in AtTFDB.

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Summary of LFY Transcription Factor Family in Soybean
.

Database	Type of Data	No.of Genes	Downloadable DNA sequences	Downloadable protein sequences
PlantTFDB	EST/cDNA based unigenes	1	DNA sequences	Protein sequence
SoyDB	Scaffold based genomic contigs	2	N/A	Protein sequences, one is partial sequence
UVa Legume TFKB	Chromosome based DNA	2	Both cDNA and CDS, both full length	Protein sequences Alignment

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LFY Family Binding Sites and Interacting Proteins in Model Plant Organisms

TF Family	Arabidopsis	Rice	Binding Site	Interacting proteins	Literature
LFY	1 gene Info in AtPID	1-2 genes	CCANTG	APETALA1 (AP1) APETALA3 (AP3) AGAMOUS	PUBMED:14736918 PUBMED:9783581

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Last updated by Dr. Jeff Chen on May 20, 2009.