Flowering time diversity has adaptive value in natural populations and plays a major role in agricultural production. Specifically, flowering delay in different environmental conditions is a crucial breeding trait for yield and nutritive quality of leafy crops and forages. Genetic and molecular analyses in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana have identified regulatory pathways that control the floral transition. These pathways act in different tissues of the plant but ultimately converge at the shoot apical meristem (SAM). Our studies aim to translate the knowledge acquired in Arabidopsis to leafy vegetables of high commercial value, endive and escarole (Cichorium endivia), whose transcriptome was recently sequenced in our lab in collaboration with the International seed breeding company Enza Zaden (R&D Italia). The final goal is to identify novel functional single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), which may account for flowering time diversity as a tool for molecular breeding of leafy crops. We use a candidate gene approach and focus on well known Arabidopsis regulators of flowering transition and novel potential regulators belonging to the TALE family (KNOX and BLH) of homeobox transcription factors, which are expressed in the SAM and genetically interact with key flowering regulators. We characterized the flowering response of mutants and transgenics with altered KNOX expression. In silico analysis of Arabidopsis genomic regions identified potential TALE binding sites in the regulatory regions of several flowering genes. We are screening the sequenced genomes of 80 A. thaliana natural accessions for SNPs in the potential TALE binding sites to select Arabidopsis accessions for further studies. Homologous genes for known Arabidopsis regulators of flowering transition and TALEs have been identified in the C. endivia transcriptome. Identification of putative functional SNPs in flowering regulatory genes and TALEs in different C. endivia varieties is in progress.
TALE transcription factors and flowering time diversity
Chiara Nicolodi;Giulio Testone;Donato Giannino;Giovanni Mele;Giovanna Frugis
2014
Abstract
Flowering time diversity has adaptive value in natural populations and plays a major role in agricultural production. Specifically, flowering delay in different environmental conditions is a crucial breeding trait for yield and nutritive quality of leafy crops and forages. Genetic and molecular analyses in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana have identified regulatory pathways that control the floral transition. These pathways act in different tissues of the plant but ultimately converge at the shoot apical meristem (SAM). Our studies aim to translate the knowledge acquired in Arabidopsis to leafy vegetables of high commercial value, endive and escarole (Cichorium endivia), whose transcriptome was recently sequenced in our lab in collaboration with the International seed breeding company Enza Zaden (R&D Italia). The final goal is to identify novel functional single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), which may account for flowering time diversity as a tool for molecular breeding of leafy crops. We use a candidate gene approach and focus on well known Arabidopsis regulators of flowering transition and novel potential regulators belonging to the TALE family (KNOX and BLH) of homeobox transcription factors, which are expressed in the SAM and genetically interact with key flowering regulators. We characterized the flowering response of mutants and transgenics with altered KNOX expression. In silico analysis of Arabidopsis genomic regions identified potential TALE binding sites in the regulatory regions of several flowering genes. We are screening the sequenced genomes of 80 A. thaliana natural accessions for SNPs in the potential TALE binding sites to select Arabidopsis accessions for further studies. Homologous genes for known Arabidopsis regulators of flowering transition and TALEs have been identified in the C. endivia transcriptome. Identification of putative functional SNPs in flowering regulatory genes and TALEs in different C. endivia varieties is in progress.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
