High-Temperature Conditions Promote Soybean Flowering through the Transcriptional Reprograming of Flowering Genes in the Photoperiod Pathway

Abstract

Global warming has an impact on crop growth and development. Flowering time is particularly sensitive to environmental factors such as day length and temperature. In this study, we investigated the effects of global warming on flowering using an open-top Climatron chamber, which has a higher temperature and CO2 concentration than in the field. Two different soybean cultivars, Williams 82 and IT153414, which exhibited different flowering times, were promoted flowering in the open-top Climatron chamber than in the field. We more specifically examined the expression patterns of soybean flowering genes on the molecular level under high-temperature conditions. The elevated temperature induced the expression of soybean floral activators, GmFT2a and GmFT5a as well as a set of GmCOL genes. In contrast, it suppressed floral repressors, E1 and E2 homologs. Moreover, high-temperature conditions affected the expression of these flowering genes in a day length-independent manner. Taken together, our data suggest that soybean plants properly respond and adapt to changing environments by modulating the expression of a set of flowering genes in the photoperiod pathway for the successful production of seeds and offspring.

Effect of elevated temperature on phenology, growth, yield components and seed yield of Brassica juncea grown in temperature gradient tunnels (TGT)

“…plant height increased due to heat stress at 32/ 22° C and 35/ 25° C in canola. Our results are consistent with the findings ofNo et al, (2021) in soybean andKaur et al, (2019) in rice where…”

Identification and Functional Characterization of FLOWERING LOCUS T in Platycodon grandiflorus

“…However, contrary to vernalization, high temperature provided a flowering signal by increasing NtFT (Narcissus FT gene homolog) expression, whereas the down-regulation of NtFT by low temperature inhibited flower induction [ 45 ]. In addition, high-temperature promoted soybean flowering through the induction of soybean floral activators (soybean FT homologs GmFT2a and GmFT5a ) and the suppression of floral repressors [ 46 ]. Under high-temperature conditions, the histone variant H2A.Z plays a pivotal role in temperature-dependent FT transcription by PHYTOCHROME INTERACTING FACTOR 4 (PIF4) and key thermosensory bHLH transcription factor by improving the accessibility of PIF4 to the FT promoter [ 4 ].…”

Comparative Genomic and Expression Analysis Insight into Evolutionary Characteristics of PEBP Genes in Cultivated Peanuts and Their Roles in Floral Induction

“…It indicates that the FT genes may have opposite functions under different photoperiod and temperature treatments, which has been confirmed in soybeans [ 17 , 18 , 40 , 41 ]. The increased expression of GmFT2a and GmFT5a promoted flowering under short-day and high-temperature conditions [ 17 , 18 , 42 ]. ArahyM2THPA and ArahyEM6VH3 are located on the same branch as GmFT5a in phylogenetic analyses, and their responses to photoperiod and temperature are similar to GmFT5a , while ArahyIZ8FG5 and GmFT2a are closer in phylogenetic analyses, and both genes respond to photoperiods.…”