Abstract
Flowering is a morphogenetic process in which angiosperms shift from vegetative growth to reproductive growth. Flowering time has a strong influence on fruit growth, which is closely related to productivity. Therefore, research on crop flowering time is particularly important. To better understand the flowering period of the tomato, we performed transcriptome sequencing of early flower buds and flowers during the extension period in the later-flowering “Moneymaker” material and the earlier-flowering “20965” homozygous inbred line, and we analyzed the obtained data. At least 43.92 million clean reads were obtained from 12 datasets, and the similarity with the tomato internal reference genome was 92.86–94.57%. Based on gene expression and background annotations, 49 candidate genes related to flowering time and flower development were initially screened, among which the greatest number belong to the photoperiod pathway. According to the expression pattern of candidate genes, the cause of early flowering of “20965” is predicted. The modes of action of the differentially expressed genes were classified, and the results show that they are closely related to hormone regulation and participated in a variety of life activities in crops. The candidate genes we screened and the analysis of their expression patterns provide a basis for future functional verification, helping to explore the molecular mechanism of tomato flowering time more comprehensively.
Highlights
The results show that the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) mainly responded to indole acetic acid (IAA), abscisic acid (ABA), brassinosteroids (BR), ethylene, cytokinins, jasmonates (JA), salicylic acid (SA), and gibberellin (GA) hormone regulation
The second-generation molecular sequencing technology RNA-seq has become the most common method used for studying gene expression and screening and predicting candidate genes
Transcriptome sequencing was conducted in two flower development stages of two tomato varieties with different flowering periods in the present study, and the transcriptome data were verified by qRT-PCR
Summary
Flowering is a crucial developmental process of angiosperms. It marks the transformation from vegetative growth to reproductive growth [1,2]. The reproductive ability of plant offspring, viability of the population, and adaptability to the ecological environment are closely related to flowering. Flowering time of crops has a profound effect on fruit yield and quality; adaptive flowering time is an important agronomic trait that has received a great deal of attention from breeders [3,4]. Flowering time is regulated by internal and external factors [5,6,7]. The vegetative growth of crops must be accumulated to a certain extent prior to flowering. Crops can adapt to changes in environmental conditions such as seasonal changes, light, humidity, and temperature and will accept corresponding flowering instructions. Flower development can be divided into four stages according to time: (1) the flowering transition period; (2) meristem determination of gene activation;
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