Abstract
BackgroundBolting refers to the early flowering stem production on agricultural and horticultural crops before harvesting. Indeed, bolting is an event induced by the coordinated effects of various environmental factors and endogenous genetic components, which cause a large reduction in the quality and productivity of vegetable crops like spinach. However, little is known about the signaling pathways and molecular functions involved in bolting mechanisms in spinach. The genetic information regarding the transition from vegetative growth to the reproductive stage in spinach would represent an advantage to regulate bolting time and improvement of resistant cultivars to minimize performance loss.ResultsTo investigate the key genes and their genetic networks controlling spinach bolting, we performed RNA-seq analysis on early bolting accession Kashan and late-bolting accession Viroflay at both vegetative and reproductive stages and found a significant number of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) ranging from 195 to 1230 in different comparisons. These genes were mainly associated with the signaling pathways of vernalization, photoperiod/circadian clock, gibberellin, autonomous, and aging pathways. Gene ontology analysis uncovered terms associated with carbohydrate metabolism, and detailed analysis of expression patterns for genes of Fructose-1, 6-bisphosphate aldolase, TREHALOSE-6-PHOSPHATE SYNTHASE 1, FLOWERING PROMOTING FACTOR 1, EARLY FLOWERING, GIGANTEA, and MADS-box proteins revealed their potential roles in the initiating or delaying of bolting.ConclusionThis study is the first report on identifying bolting and flowering-related genes based on transcriptome sequencing in spinach, which provides insight into bolting control and can be useful for molecular breeding programs and further study in the regulation of the genetic mechanisms related to bolting in other vegetable crops.
Highlights
Bolting refers to the early flowering stem production on agricultural and horticultural crops before harvesting
Our findings will contribute to identify genes and molecular mechanisms regulating bolting, which could help us to better understand the bolting mechanisms in spinach and can be useful for molecular breeding programs and further study in the regulation of the genetic mechanisms related to bolting in other vegetable crops
Differential gene expression profiling To discover the genetic differences between early and late-bolting accessions, differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified from pairwise comparisons of both stages and accessions (Fig. 2)
Summary
Bolting refers to the early flowering stem production on agricultural and horticultural crops before harvesting. Spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.) from the Amaranthaceae family is an annual, dioecious, and cold-tolerant leafy vegetable plant with diverse nutrients and healthpromoting compounds such as fiber, vitamins, iron, and antioxidant activities [1, 2]. This plant is cultivated worldwide and is becoming one of the most important. The use of late-bolting cultivars and regulation of bolting time are the most successful ways to limit the effect of bolting on spinach productivity. Research on the signaling pathways and molecular functions of flowering-related genes can enable researchers to regulate bolting
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