MYB117 is a negative regulator of flowering time in <i>Arabidopsis</i>

Plant flowering is crucial for the onset and progression of reproduction processes. The control of flowering time is a sophisticated system with multiple known regulatory mechanisms in plants. Here, we show that MYB117 participates in the flowering time regulation in <i>Arabidopsis</i> as <i>myb117</i> mutants exhibited early flowering phenotypes under long-day condition. Transcriptome analysis of <i>myb117</i> mutants revealed 410 differentially expressed genes between wild type and <i>myb117</i>-1 mutants, where selective genes including the <i>Flowering Locus T</i> (<i>FT)</i> were further confirmed by qRT-PCR analysis. Further, <i>in vivo</i> dual-luciferase and chromatin immunoprecipitation quantitative PCR (ChIP-qPCR) assays showed that MYB117 directly binds to the promoter of <i>FT</i> to suppress its expression. Taken together, we have revealed the transcriptome profile of <i>myb117</i> mutants and identified MYB117 as a negative regulator in controlling flowering time through regulating the expression of <i>FT</i> in <i>Arabidopsis</i>.