The Cloning and Functional Characterization of Peach CONSTANS and FLOWERING LOCUS T Homologous Genes PpCO and PpFT

Abstract

Flowering is an essential stage of plant growth and development. The successful transition to flowering not only ensures the completion of plant life cycles, it also serves as the basis for the production of economically important seeds and fruits. CONSTANS (CO) and FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) are two genes playing critical roles in flowering time control in Arabidopsis. Through homology-based cloning and rapid-amplifications of cDNA ends (RACE), we obtained full-lengths cDNA sequences of Prunus persica CO (PpCO) and Prunus persica FT (PpFT) from peach (Prunus persica (L.) Batsch) and investigated their functions in flowering time regulation. PpCO and PpFT showed high homologies to Arabidopsis CO and FT at DNA, mRNA and protein levels. We showed that PpCO and PpFT were nucleus-localized and both showed transcriptional activation activities in yeast cells, consistent with their potential roles as transcription activators. Moreover, we established that the over-expression of PpCO could restore the late flowering phenotype of the Arabidopsis co-2 mutant, and the late flowering defect of the Arabidopsis ft-1 mutant can be rescued by the over-expression of PpFT, suggesting functional conservations of CO and FT genes in peach and Arabidopsis. Our results suggest that PpCO and PpFT are homologous genes of CO and FT in peach and they may function in regulating plant flowering time.

Fine tuning of hormonal signaling is linked to dormancy status in sweet cherry flower buds

“…Afterwards, genes involved in ABA degradation (CYP707A) are highly expressed during dormancy release and positively correlated with a decrease of ABA content. Similar results were reported in other Prunus species (Zhang et al 2015, Wang et al 2016, Tuan et al 2017, thus supporting the hypothesis that ABA signaling pathways play a major role in the regulation of dormancy induction, maintenance and release. Secondly, DORMANCY-ASSOCIATED MADS-BOX (DAM) genes have been strong candidates for a key role in dormancy promotion and maintenance (Rodriguez et al 1994, Bielenberg et al 2008.…”

Genome-wide analysis of long non-coding RNAs in Catalpa bungei and their potential function in floral transition using high-throughput sequencing

“…For example, except for Cbu.gene.10036, DELLA homologous genes in C. bungei exhibited greater expression in EF buds than in NF buds. In Arabidopsis , DELLA is a negative flowering regulation gene that has been shown to exhibit lower expression levels in EF versus NF buds [ 46 , 51 ]. FT and TSF are important genes related to floral transition in Arabidopsis that regulate floral transition in response to day length (Fig.…”

Genome-wide characterization of PEBP family genes in nine Rosaceae tree species and their expression analysis in P. mume

“…The ectopic expression of PmFT and RoFT in tobacco leads to extremely advanced owering [75]. Similarly, the late-owering phenotype of Arabidopsis ft mutant can be rescued by overexpressing PpFT, indicating the conserved oral promoting role of FT in examined Rosaceae species [76]. On the other hand, prolonged vegetative growth and a late-owering phenotype were observed for transgenic Arabidopsis/tobacco overexpressing PpTFL1, PmTFL1, RoTFL1, MdTFL1-1/2, suggesting that the Rosaceae TFL1-like genes can complement the TFL1 function in Arabidopsis [77][78][79].…”