Abstract
Tropical evergreen perennials undergo recurrent flush growth, and their terminal buds alternate between growth and dormancy. In sharp contrast to the intensive studies on bud development in temperate deciduous trees, there is little information about bud development regulation in tropical trees. In this study, litchi (Litchi chinensis Sonn.) was used as a model tropical perennial for morphological characterization and transcriptomic analysis of bud development. Litchi buds are naked with apical meristem embraced by rudimentary leaves, which are brown at dormant stage (Stage I). They swell and turn greenish as buds break (Stage II), and as growth accelerates, the rudimentary leaves elongate and open exposing the inner leaf primodia. With the outgrowth of the needle-like leaflets, bud growth reaches a maximum (Stage III). When leaflets expand, bud growth cease with the abortion of the rudimentary leaves at upper positions (Stage IV). Then buds turn brown and reenter dormant status. Budbreak occurs again when new leaves become hard green. Buds at four stages (Stage I to IV) were collected for respiration measurements and in-depth RNA sequencing. Respiration rate was the lowest at Stage I and highest at Stage II, decreasing toward growth cessation. RNA sequencing obtained over 5 Gb data from each of the bud samples and de novo assembly generated a total of 59,999 unigenes, 40,119 of which were annotated. Pair-wise comparison of gene expression between stages, gene profiling across stages, GO/KEGG enrichment analysis, and the expression patterns of 17 major genes highlighted by principal component (PC) analysis displayed significant changes in stress resistance, hormone signal pathways, circadian rhythm, photosynthesis, cell division, carbohydrate metabolism, programmed cell death during bud development, which might be under epigenetic control involving chromatin methylation. The qPCR results of 8 selected unigenes with high PC scores agreed with the RPKM values obtained from RNA-seq. Three Short Vegetative Phase (SVP) genes, namely LcSVP1, LcSVP2, and LcSVP3 displayed different expression patterns, suggesting their differential roles in bud development regulation. The study brought an understanding about biological processes associated with the phase transitions, molecular regulation of bud development, as well as cyclic bud growth as a strategy to survive tropical conditions.
Highlights
Dormancy, an important phase of bud development is considered as a survival strategy taken by plants to survive seasonal harsh climatic conditions
Stage I was dormant stage, when buds were brown and the top leaves were fully expanded yet still soft green; Stage II corresponded to bud break stage, when the top leaves were hard green and buds became greenish and slightly swelled; Stage III, the rapid elongation stage, when bud were in active growth sending out new compound leaves with folded leaflets that were needle-like in shape; and Stage IV, the growth cessation stage during leaf expansion, when elongation growth ceased with weak growth or abortion of the upper rudimentary leaves
The results showed that salicylic acid and programmed cell death might be involved in regulation of bud development cycle in litchi, as bud dormancy release occurred with the downregulation of the response to salicylic acid and programmed cell death (Table 3), while growth cessation took place with the up-regulation of the two processes (Table 5)
Summary
An important phase of bud development is considered as a survival strategy taken by plants to survive seasonal harsh climatic conditions. The development and removal of winter dormancy in bud of deciduous trees involves transitions between dormancy statuses (Arora et al, 2003; Anderson et al, 2010; Díaz-Riquelme et al, 2012). Endodormancy in these plants is the innate dormant state induced by short day photoperiod and/or low temperatures and is released by exposure to chilling temperatures for a period of time (Davis, 2002; Arora et al, 2003; Anderson et al, 2010)
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