Morphological Variation of Five Cut Chrysanthemum Cultivars Induced by 5-Azacytidine Treatment

Abstract

In this study, five cultivars of cut chrysanthemum Chrysanthemum ×morifolium Ramat., ‘Jinba’, ‘Yuuka’, ‘Fenguiren’, ‘Xueshen’, and ‘Huangjin’ were used to explore the functions of 5-azacytidine (5-azaC) on chrysanthemum growth and flower development. The results showed that 5-azaC had different effects on the growth of the five cultivars during in vitro culture. The final statistics showed that low concentrations promoted plant growth, whereas high concentrations inhibited growth; however, each cultivar had different growth curves, demonstrating that 5-azaC had no consistent inhibitory actions on growth. On the basis of the squaring time and flowering time statistics, we found that 5-azaC had a certain effect on the flowering time of all cut chrysanthemums, and all of these cultivars showed extremely early strains. Summer chrysanthemum (‘Yuuka’, ‘Fenguiren’, ‘Xueshen’, and ‘Huangjin’) treatments led to both early and delayed flowering. When the statistics were analyzed for different individuals, we found that the treatments shortened the squaring time in early-flowering plants. In ‘Jinba’, an autumn chrysanthemum, the treatment helped broken juvenile limitations and allowed plants to undergo photoperiod induction in the early stage. Additionally, we also determined the flower diameter differences in these treatments; ray florets from ‘Yuuka’ and ‘Huangjin’ trended to show tubular florets, and the location of tubular and ray florets were changed in ‘Xueshen’ capitulum. In conclusion, on the basis of flowering time in five early varieties of cut chrysanthemum, we propose that 5-azaC may regulate the methylation level of genes that control flower induction and flower development. These results provide phenotypic data and material for exploring the function of DNA methylation in regulating flowering.