Abstract
FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) can promote early flowering in annual species, but such role has not been well demonstrated in woody species. We produced self and reciprocal grafts involving non-transgenic blueberry (NT) and transgenic blueberry (T) carrying a 35S-driven blueberry FT (VcFT-OX). We demonstrated that the transgenic VcFT-OX rootstock promoted flowering of non-transgenic blueberry scions in the NT (scion):T (rootstock) grafts. We further analyzed RNA-Seq profiles and six groups of phytohormones in both NT:T and NT:NT plants. We observed content changes of several hormone metabolites, in a descending order, in the transgenic NT:T, non-transgenic NT:T, and non-transgenic NT:NT leaves. By comparing differential expression transcripts (DETs) of these tissues in relative to their control, we found that the non-transgenic NT:T leaves had many DETs shared with the transgenic NT:T leaves, but very few with the transgenic NT:T roots. Interestingly, a number of these shared DETs belong to hormone pathway genes, concurring with the content changes of hormone metabolites in both transgenic and non-transgenic leaves of the NT:T plants. These results suggest that phytohormones induced by VcFT-OX in the transgenic leaves might serve as part of the signals that resulted in early flowering in both transgenic plants and the non-transgenic NT:T scions.
Highlights
Florigen was originally defined to be graft-transmissible hormones or hormone-like molecules involved in longdistance regulation of flowering[1,2,3]
VcFT-OX promoted flowering in transgrafted scions We previously demonstrated that overexpression of
We previously demonstrated that constitutive expression of a VcFT in tobacco resulted in early flowering and plant dwarfing[46]
Summary
Florigen was originally defined to be graft-transmissible hormones or hormone-like molecules involved in longdistance regulation of flowering[1,2,3]. In woody shrubs, while overexpression of the Jatropha FT in transgenic Jatropha rootstock promoted flowering in recipient scions[22], such a phenomenon was not observed in recipient scions grafted on transgenic cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) containing a constitutively expressed Arabidopsis FT23. In both reports, potential transport of Jatropha FT proteins or FT RNAs as florigenic signals were not analyzed[22,23].
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