Glyma11g13220, a homolog of the vernalization pathway gene VERNALIZATION 1 from soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.], promotes flowering in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Jing Lü,Rong Yi,Hai Nian,Haicui Suo,Qibin Ma

doi:10.1186/s12870-015-0602-6

Abstract

BackgroundThe precise timing of flowering is fundamental to successful reproduction, and has dramatic significance for crop yields. Although prolonged low temperatures are not required for flowering induction in soybean, vernalization pathway genes have been retained during the evolution of this species. Little information is currently available in regarding these genes in soybean.ResultsWe were able to detect the expression of Glyma11g13220 in different organs at all monitored developmental stages in soybean. Glyma11g13220 expression was higher in leaves and pods than in shoot apexes and stems. In addition, Glyma11g13220 was responsive to photoperiod and low temperature in soybean. Furthermore, Glyma11g13220 was found to be a nuclear-localized protein. Over-expression of Glyma11g13220 in an Arabidopsis Columbia-0 (Col-0) background resulted in early flowering. Quantitative real-time PCR analysis revealed that transcript levels of flower repressor FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC), and FD decreased significantly in transgenic Arabidopsis compared with wild-type Col-0, while the expression of VERNALIZATION INSENSITIVE 3 (VIN3) and FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) noticeably increased.ConclusionsOur results suggest that Glyma11g13220, a homolog of Arabidopsis VRN1, is a functional protein. Glyma11g13220, which is responsive to photoperiod and low temperature in soybean, may participate in the vernalization pathway in Arabidopsis and help regulate flowering time. Arabidopsis VRN1 and Glyma11g13220 exhibit conserved as well as diverged functions.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12870-015-0602-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Highlights

The precise timing of flowering is fundamental to successful reproduction, and has dramatic significance for crop yields
We found that Glyma11g13220 was responsive to photoperiod and low temperature in soybean and that heterologous expression of Glyma11g13220 in Arabidopsis Columbia-0 (Col-0) caused early flowering
VRN1 was not the Arabidopsis B3 protein having the highest similarity to Glyma11g13220 (Additional file 1), Glyma11g13220.1 was predict to be a homolog of Arabidopsis VRN1 in accordance with previous comparative genomic analyses of soybean flowering genes [22, 26]

Summary

Introduction

The precise timing of flowering is fundamental to successful reproduction, and has dramatic significance for crop yields. Many pathways have been reported to regulate FLC via different chromatin pathways and co-transcriptional mechanisms involving cold-induced long antisense intragenic RNA (COOLAIR) transcripts [8, 9]. One of these pathways is the autonomous pathway in which alternative processing of COOLAIR transcripts leads to gene body histone K4 demethylation and FLC down-regulation [9]. The vernalization pathway, prolonged cold elevates COOLAIR transcription and silences FLC in a Polycomb-mediated epigenetic process [10, 11]

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