Identification and Characterization of the PEBP Family Genes in Moso Bamboo (Phyllostachys heterocycla)

Zhaohe Yang,Jiakai Liao,Lei Chen,Qiang Zhu,Lianfeng Gu,Xi Zhen,Chentao Lin,Yoshito Oka,Markus V Kohnen,Bei Xiong,Bobin Liu

doi:10.1038/s41598-019-51278-7

Abstract

Moso bamboo is one of the economically most important plants in China. Moso bamboo is a monocarpic perennial that exhibits poor and slow germination. Thus, the flowering often causes destruction of moso bamboo forestry. However, how control of flowering and seed germination are regulated in moso bamboo is largely unclear. In this study, we identified 5 members (PhFT1-5) of the phosphatidyl ethanolamine-binding proteins (PEBP) family from moso bamboo genome that regulate flowering, flower architecture and germination, and characterized the function of these PEBP family genes further in Arabidopsis. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that 3 (PhFT1, PhFT2 and PhFT3), 1 (PhFT4) and 1 (PhFT5) members belong to the TFL1-like clade, FT-like clade, and MFT-like clade, respectively. These PEBP family genes possess all structure necessary for PEBP gene function. The ectopic overexpression of PhFT4 and PhFT5 promotes flowering time in Arabidopsis, and that of PhFT1, PhFT2 and PhFT3 suppresses it. In addition, the overexpression of PhFT5 promotes seed germination rate. Interestingly, the overexpression of PhFT1 suppressed seed germination rate in Arabidopsis. The expression of PhFT1 and PhFT5 is significantly higher in seed than in tissues including leaf and shoot apical meristem, implying their function in seed germination. Taken together, our results suggested that the PEBP family genes play important roles as regulators of flowering and seed germination in moso bamboo and thereby are necessary for the sustainability of moso bamboo forest.

Highlights

Bamboos are economically and ecologically important plant species with high competition ability of biomass yield due to fast growth[1,2]
The plant phosphatidyl ethanolamine-binding protein (PEBP) family can be classified into three subfamilies: FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT)-like, TERMINAL FLOWER1 (TFL1) -like and MOTHER OF FT AND TFL1 (MFT) -like clades
Our results suggest the potential involvement of PEBP family genes in moso bamboo flowering and seed germination

Summary

Introduction

Bamboos are economically and ecologically important plant species with high competition ability of biomass yield due to fast growth[1,2]. Its overexpression in wild type plants exhibited late flowering phenotype and aberrant inflorescence architecture, suggesting that ATC protein has similar function to that of TFL1 and BFT22,23. The amino acid sequence encoded by the the fourth exon plays a critical role to determine FT and TFL1 protein functions and can be divided into four segments (segment A–D) by sequence conservation[29]. Heterologous expression analyses, in which the PEBP family genes from tomato[33], orchid[34], Japanese apricot[35], rubber tree[36] and physic nut[37] were expressed mostly in Arabidopsis, revealed that FT-like genes and TFL1-like genes promote and repress flowering, respectively. BoTFL1-like from Bambusa oldhamii paly an inhibitor role of flowering[43] These analyses revealed that TFL1-like genes regulate flower architecture and MFT-like genes promote seed germination

Methods

Results

Conclusion