Abstract
Mother of FT and TFL1 (MFT) belongs to phosphatidylethanolamine-binding protein (PEBP) family, which plays an important role in flowering time regulation, seed development, and germination. To gain insight into the molecular function of DlMFT in Dimocarpus longan Lour., we isolated DlMFT and its promoter sequence from longan embryogenic callus (EC). Bioinformatic analysis indicated that the promoter contained multiphytohormones and light responsive regulatory elements. Subcellular localization showed that the given the DlMFT signal localized in the nucleus, expression profiling implied that DlMFT showed significant upregulation during somatic embryogenesis (SE) and zygotic embryogenesis (ZE), and particular highly expressed in late or maturation stages. The accumulation of DlMFT was mainly detected in mature fruit and seed, while it was undetected in abortive seeds, and notably decreased during seed germination. DlMFT responded differentially to exogenous hormones in longan EC. Auxins, salicylic acid (SA) and methyl jasmonate (MeJa) suppressed its expression, however, abscisic acid (ABA), brassinosteroids (BR) showed the opposite function. Meanwhile, DlMFT differentially responded to various abiotic stresses. Our study revealed that DlMFT might be a key regulator of longan somatic and zygotic embryo development, and in seed germination, it is involved in complex plant hormones and abiotic stress signaling pathways.
Highlights
Longan (Dimocarpus longan Lour.) is a famous subtropical economic fruit tree in Southeast Asia
The development of somatic embryogenesis (SE) closely resembles that of zygotic embryogenesis (ZE), it has been considered as a potential model for studying early events in plant embryo development [7], and considered as a model to study the tissular, cellular, and molecular properties of ZE [9,10]
The gDNA sequence of DlMFT was cloned from longan embryogenic callus (EC) DAN with specific primer and submitted to GenBank (GenBank accession No KY968646), the comparative analysis of Mother of FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) and TERMINAL FLOWER1 (TFL1) (MFT) genomic organization indicated that the MFT contained three introns and four exons, and owned the same number of nucleotides in exons (Figure 1a)
Summary
Longan (Dimocarpus longan Lour.) is a famous subtropical economic fruit tree in Southeast Asia. MFT promoted primary dormancy during seed development, and enhanced germination in after-ripened imbibed seeds with exogenous ABA in Arabidopsis [35]. The homolog of MFT in soybean responded to exogenous applied ABA and gibberellin (GA), ectopic expression of GmMFT in Arabidopsis did not affect the flowering time but suppressed seed germination [29]. Ectopic expression of HbMFT1 in Arabidopsis inhibited seed germination, seedling growth, different with previous studies, it delayed flowering time [30]. FvMFT located in the nucleus and cytoplasmic membranes, ectopic expression of FvMFT in Arabidopsis inhibited seed germination through integrating ABA and GA signaling, FvMFT could notably promote the primary root growth under sugar-deficient conditions [36]. We isolated DlMFT and its promoter, and found that DlMFT was a seed-specific gene, and might play an important role in longan embryogenesis, seed development, and germination. The information provided by our study may help to illuminate the biological functions of DlMFT in longan
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