Abstract
Key message
TFL1homologCorcanTFL1suppresses the initiation of inflorescence development and regulates the inflorescence morphology inCornus canadensis.
Abstract
In flowering plants, there is a wide range of variation of inflorescence morphology. Despite the ecological and evolutionary importance, efforts devoted to the evolutionary study of the genetic basis of inflorescence morphology are far fewer compared to those on flower development. Our previous study on gene expression patterns suggested a CorTFL1–CorAP1 based model for the evolution of determinate umbels, heads, and mini dichasia from elongated inflorescences in Cornus. Here, we tested the function of CorcanTFL1 in regulating inflorescence development in Cornus canadensis through Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. We showed that transgenic plants overexpressing CorcanTFL1 displayed delayed or suppressed inflorescence initiation and development and extended periods of vegetative growth. Transgenic plants within which CorcanTFL1 had been down-regulated displayed earlier emergence of inflorescence and a reduction of bract and inflorescence sizes, conversions of leaves to bracts and axillary leaf buds to small inflorescences at the uppermost node bearing the inflorescence, or phyllotaxy changes of inflorescence branches and leaves from decussate opposite to spirally alternate. These observations support an important role of CorcanTFL1 in determining flowering time and the morphological destinies of leaves and buds at the node bearing the inflorescence. The evidence is in agreement with the predicted function of CorTFL1 from the gene expression model, supporting a key role of CorTFL1 in the evolutionary divergence of inflorescence forms in Cornus.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank NCSU Phytotron for providing the space of culturing C. canadensis source plants and transgenic plants. We are grateful to Ron Qu for discussion in vector construction and transformation experiments, to Ashley Yow for participating DNA extraction, to Na Li and Sarah Yim for assistance in culturing the plants in Phytotron, and to the anonymous reviewers for critical review of the manuscript and constructive comments. The study was supported by a National Science Foundation of the United States Grant (IOS-1024629).
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Communicated by Baochun Li.
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299_2019_2369_MOESM3_ESM.tif
Fig. S1 WT Cornus canadensis plants. a) Shoot termination and inflorescence development. b) An inflorescence with expanding bracts and opening flowers Supplementary material 3 (TIF 5928 KB)
299_2019_2369_MOESM4_ESM.tif
Fig. S2 Inflorescence morphology of transgenic plants. a) Morphology of inflorescences in a plant downregulating CorcanTFL1 by hairpin construct, supporting figure 4. b) Upregulation of CorcanLFY in leaves of transgenic plants derived from the transformation of CorcanLFY overexpression. c-d) Morphology of inflorescences of plants overexpressing CorcanLFY. The procedure of vector construction for CorcanLFY overexpression is the same as that of vector pH2GW7-CorcanTFL1w Supplementary material 4 (TIF 9143 KB)
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Liu, X., Zhang, J., Xie, D. et al. Functional characterization of Terminal Flower1 homolog in Cornus canadensis by genetic transformation. Plant Cell Rep 38, 333–343 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-019-02369-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-019-02369-2