Abstract
Prunus persica (peach) trees carrying the “Pillar” or “Broomy” trait (br) have vertically oriented branches caused by loss-of-function mutations in a gene called TILLER ANGLE CONTROL 1 (TAC1). TAC1 encodes a protein in the IGT gene family that includes LAZY1 and DEEPER ROOTING 1 (DRO1), which regulate lateral branch and root orientations, respectively. Here we found that some of the native TAC1 alleles in the hexaploid plum species Prunus domestica, which has a naturally more upright stature, contained a variable length trinucleotide repeat within the same exon 3 region previously found to be disrupted in pillar peach trees. RNAi silencing of TAC1 in plum resulted in trees with severely vertical branch orientations similar to those in pillar peaches but with an even narrower profile. In contrast, PpeTAC1 overexpression in plum led to trees with wider branch angles and more horizontal branch orientations. Pillar peach trees and transgenic plum lines exhibited pleiotropic phenotypes, including differences in trunk and branch diameter, stem growth, and twisting branch phenotypes. Expression profiling of pillar peach trees revealed differential expression of numerous genes associated with biotic and abiotic stress, hormone responses, plastids, reactive oxygen, secondary, and cell wall metabolism. Collectively, the data provide important clues for understanding TAC1 function and show that alteration of TAC1 expression may have broad applicability to agricultural and ornamental tree industries.
Highlights
Given the limited availability of agricultural land and water, increases in crop productivity will require higherdensity agricultural production to keep pace with the growing worldwide demand for food
Pillar peach trees display pleotropic phenotypes Previous studies found a number of morphological differences between pillar and standard peach growth habits in addition to branch angle including stem diameter, branch length, and internode distance[8]
TAC1allelic variation in Prunus domestica To better understand the role of TILLER ANGLE CONTROL 1 (TAC1) in regulating tree architecture, we evaluated TAC1 gene function in the closely related species P. domestica
Summary
Given the limited availability of agricultural land and water, increases in crop productivity will require higherdensity agricultural production to keep pace with the growing worldwide demand for food. During key stages of the domestication of cereal crops such as rice and maize, considerable gains in productivity were achieved through modifications in plant architecture. This included reduced tillering and breeding for upright tiller and leaf angles, which minimizes competition and increases the efficiency of light capture under crowded conditions[1,2]. In addition to branch angle, pleotropic phenotypes have been described in pillar peach trees, including fewer sylleptic branches, shorter branches, longer internodes, and increased auxin and auxin-tocytokinin ratios, features possibly associated with increased apical dominance[8].
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