Functional and Evolutionary Characterization of the CONSTANS Gene Family in Short-Day Photoperiodic Flowering in Soybean

Abstract

CONSTANS (CO) plays a central role in photoperiodic flowering control of plants. However, much remains unknown about the function of the CO gene family in soybean and the molecular mechanisms underlying short-day photoperiodic flowering of soybean. We identified 26 CO homologs (GmCOLs) in the soybean genome, many of them previously unreported. Phylogenic analysis classified GmCOLs into three clades conserved among flowering plants. Two homeologous pairs in Clade I, GmCOL1a/GmCOL1b and GmCOL2a/GmCOL2b, showed the highest sequence similarity to Arabidopsis CO. The mRNA abundance of GmCOL1a and GmCOL1b exhibited a strong diurnal rhythm under flowering-inductive short days and peaked at dawn, which coincided with the rise of GmFT5a expression. In contrast, the mRNA abundance of GmCOL2a and GmCOL2b was extremely low. Our transgenic study demonstrated that GmCOL1a, GmCOL1b, GmCOL2a and GmCOL2b fully complemented the late flowering effect of the co-1 mutant in Arabidopsis. Together, these results indicate that GmCOL1a and GmCOL1b are potential inducers of flowering in soybean. Our data also indicate rapid regulatory divergence between GmCOL1a/GmCOL1b and GmCOL2a/GmCOL2b but conservation of their protein function. Dynamic evolution of GmCOL regulatory mechanisms may underlie the evolution of photoperiodic signaling in soybean.

Molecular characterization of CONSTANS-Like (COL) genes in banana (Musa acuminata L. AAA Group, cv. Grand Nain)

“…Several studies in both monocots (Miller et al 2008;Nemoto et al 2003;Hayama and Coupland 2004) and dicots (Chia Putterill et al 1995;Suarez-Lopez et al 2001;Wong et al 2014;Zhang et al 2015;Wu et al 2014) have shown that photoperiod responsive flowering is controlled by the CO/FT module. The control is exerted by a combination of the circadian regulation of the CO gene and differential stability of the transcript and protein in light and dark.…”

“…Under long day conditions, the CO protein is degraded in the dark and in the early morning by PHYB (red-light receptor) while it is stabilized in the evening by PHYA (far-red receptor) and CRYPTOCHROME 1 (CRY1) and CRY2 (blue-light receptor). In the afternoon CO protein is stabilized through interaction with FKF1 because of the antagonistic effect of PHYA (Song et al 2013;Wu et al 2014). The final result of the regulated expression of CO in long day plants such as Arabidopsis is its abundance during afternoon and a peak in the evening of a long day season.…”

“…In both monocots and dicots the COL (CONSTANS-Like) family has many members such as 17 in Arabidopsis, 16 in rice, 9 in barley (Griffiths et al 2003), 10 in sugarbeet (Chia et al 2008), 11 in Medicago (Wong et al 2014), 26 in soybean (Wu et al 2014) and 23 in cotton (Zhang et al 2015). All of these COL genes are characterized by the presence of three domains namely the B-box 1, B-box 2 and a CCT (CO, COlike, and TOC1) domain (Griffiths et al 2003;Putterill et al 1995;Strayer et al 2000).…”

Global Transcriptome Analysis and Identification of the Flowering Regulatory Genes Expressed in Leaves of Lagerstroemia indica

“…Based on the variation in B-box domains, the COL gene family in A. thaliana may be separated into three groups (Robson et al, 2001). Wu et al (2014) identified 26 CO homologs (GmCOLs) in the soybean genome and classified them into three clades, which are conserved among flowering plants. Chou et al (2013) identified 12 full-length E. pusilla CO-like (EpCOL) genes and divided them into four groups.…”

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