Ectopic expression of Atleafy in Brassica juncea cv. Geeta for early flowering

Abstract

High temperature stress during pod filling severely affects the yield of Brassica juncea. Early flowering can evade the terminal heat stress and result in early maturity of the crop. In this study, a regeneration and transformation protocol has been standardized for B. juncea cv. Geeta. Hypocotyl from 5-day-old seedlings were used as explants. Of the various combinations of auxins and cytokinins tried along with Murashige and Skoog's (Physiol Plant 15:473-497, 1962) medium, MS + IAA (0.2 mg/l) + BA (3 mg/l) proved best for shoot regeneration with 89.9 % regeneration efficiency. To induce early flowering Leafy gene from Arabidopsis thaliana was transformed using Agrobacterium mediated transformation method. After 12 weeks transgenic plants showed flowering in vitro whereas their untransformed counterpart did not flower even after 16 weeks. The maximum transformation frequency was 4 %.

Sequence and functional analysis of a TERMINAL FLOWER 1 homolog fromBrassica juncea: a putative biotechnological tool for flowering time adjustment

“…This result demonstrates that this BjTFL1 RNAi construct could be a good tool to promote flowering time in B. juncea, as varieties with shorter life cycle can evade the heat stress during pod development and oil filling stages leading to increased yields. 57 TFL1 homologs have been used as biotechnological tools to accelerate flowering time. RNAi constructs that target TFL1 homologs in apple (MdTFL1), European pear (PcTFL1), Alpine rock-cress (AaTFL1) and Jatropha (JcTFL1b) have been shown to promote flowering time.…”