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Cytological and miRNA expression changes during the vascular cambial transition from the dormant stage to the active stage in Ginkgo biloba L.

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During the cambium activity transition, the cambial zones, storage materials, and several related miRNAs change, providing useful information for understanding the cambial characteristics of trees.

Abstract

The vascular cambium of trees is an important lateral meristem. In the temperate zones, vascular cambium activity displays periodicity in perennial plants. However, the mechanisms of the cambial dormancy-activity transition are poorly understood. In this study, we divided the periodicity of cambial activity in Ginkgo biloba L. into dormant, reactive, active, and transformed stages according to the phenological period and changes in the cambial cell layers and sizes. The cytological analysis showed that in the dormant stage, the cambium was composed of 4–6 layers of cells with thick walls, and many starch granules and protein bodies in the cambial and phloem cells. During the reactive phase, the width of the cambial zone and cell layers increased slightly. Additionally, the number of cell layers peaked at to 10–12 in the active stage, the cell wall was the thinnest, and the starch granules and protein bodies in the cells decreased significantly, indicating that storage materials play a key role in cambial cell division and differentiation. We further detected several developmental and tolerance-resistance-related miRNAs. We found that miR159 and miR166 were highly expressed during the reactive stage, while the expression levels of miR164 and miR319 significantly increased during the active stage. Conversely, miR482 and miR2950 were highly expressed during the dormant stage, suggesting that these miRNAs were involved in the regulation of the cambial activity transition. These results provide new insights into the complex mechanisms of cambium during the dormancy to activity transition in gymnosperm trees.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported financially by the Three New Forestry Engineering Foundation of Jiangsu Province (No. lysx[2016]55).

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Correspondence to Biao Jin.

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Communicated by R. Alia.

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Cui, J., Zhao, J., Zhao, J. et al. Cytological and miRNA expression changes during the vascular cambial transition from the dormant stage to the active stage in Ginkgo biloba L.. Trees 30, 2177–2188 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-016-1443-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-016-1443-0

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