Abstract
Solanaceae is a family of flowering plants that includes agricultural species such as tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), eggplant (S. melongena), pepper (Capsicum annuum), and potato (S. tuberosum). The transition from the vegetative to reproductive stage has been extensively investigated in tomato as it affects fruit yield. While potato has mainly been studied with regards to the formation of storage organs, control of flowering time is a subject of increasing interest as development of true seeds is becoming more important for future breeding strategies. Here, we describe a robust growth regime for synchronized development of S. tuberosum ssp. andigena. Using SEM to analyse the developmental stages of the shoot apical meristem (SAM) throughout the floral transition, we show that andigena is a facultative long-day plant with respect to flowering. In addition, we identify the flower meristem identity gene MACROCALYX (StMC) as a marker to distinguish between the vegetative and reproductive stages. We show that the expression of WUSCHEL HOMEOBOX 9 (StWOX9) and ANANTHA (StAN) are specific to the inflorescence meristem and flower meristems in the cyme, respectively. The expression patterns of homologs of Arabidopsis flowering-time regulators were studied, and indicated that SUPPRESSOR OF OVEREXPRESSION OF CONSTANS1 (StSOC1) and StFD might regulate flowering similar to other plant species.
Highlights
In potato (Solanum tuberosum), developmental transitions are influenced by external cues such as temperature, soil composition, day length, and light, as well as internal cues such as the carbohydrate status, age, and plant hormones (RodríguezFalcón et al, 2006)
Due to the importance of potato as a staple crop, determining the regulatory components and the mechanisms of tuber induction are of great interest in order to find candidates that can be targeted for crop improvement
With the aim of establishing uniform plant development and synchronized growth starting with in vitro cultures, we developed a stringent three-step protocol to study flowering time and tuberization in S. tuberosum ssp. andigena (Fig. 1).We determined that, similar to Arabidopsis, andigena is a facultative LD plant in terms of flowering as we observed that the floral transition occurred much earlier under LD conditions (15–16 days after transfer (DAT)) compared to short days (SD) conditions (40–50 DAT) (Supplementary Fig. S3)
Summary
In potato (Solanum tuberosum), developmental transitions are influenced by external cues such as temperature, soil composition, day length, and light, as well as internal cues such as the carbohydrate status, age, and plant hormones (RodríguezFalcón et al, 2006). The induction of tuberization is strongly dependent on a critical day length, which varies between potato genotypes (Ewing, 1978). Andigena, tuber formation is strictly dependent on short days (SD) or, rather, long nights (Abelenda et al, 2014). Modern cultivars have been extensively bred against this sensitivity to photoperiod; tuberization remains largely promoted by reduced day length and cold temperatures in order to ensure survival during cool winter periods (Abelenda et al, 2011). Potato plants produce berries that contain 100–400 seeds. Due to their heterogenic nature, these seeds produce offspring that are genetically different from their mother plant, and propagation of genetically identical plants from seeds
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