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Repression of gibberellin biosynthesis or signaling produces striking alterations in poplar growth, morphology, and flowering

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Abstract

We modified gibberellin (GA) metabolism and signaling in transgenic poplars using dominant transgenes and studied their effects for 3 years under field conditions. The transgenes that we employed either reduced the bioactive GAs, or attenuated their signaling. The majority of transgenic trees had significant and in many cases dramatic changes in height, crown architecture, foliage morphology, flowering onset, floral structure, and vegetative phenology. Most transgenes elicited various levels of height reduction consistent with the roles of GA in elongation growth. Several other growth traits were proportionally reduced, including branch length, internode distance, and leaf length. In contrast to elongation growth, stem diameter growth was much less affected, suggesting that semi-dwarf trees in dense stands might provide high levels of biomass production and carbon sequestration. The severity of phenotypic effects was strongly correlated with transgene expression among independent transgenic events, but often in a non-linear manner, the form of which varied widely among constructs. The majority of semi-dwarfed, transgenic plants showed delayed bud flush and early bud set, and expression of a native GAI transgene accelerated first time flowering in the field. All of the phenotypic changes observed in multiple years were stable over the 3 years of field study. Our results suggest that transgenic modification of GA action may be useful for producing semi-dwarf trees with modified growth and morphology for horticulture and other uses.

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Abbreviations

GA:

Gibberellins

GA2ox:

Gibberellin 2 oxidase

GAI:

GA insensitive

RGL:

Repressor of GA1 like

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported in part by grants from the US Department of Energy (DOE), Poplar Genome Based Research for Carbon Sequestration in Terrestrial Ecosystems (DE-FG02-06ER64185, DE-FG02-05ER64113), the Consortium for Plant Biotechnology Research, Inc. (GO12026-203A), the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) CSREES, the USDA-NRI Plant Genome program (2003-04345) and USDA CSREES, the Biotechnology Risk Assessment Research Grants Program (2004-35300-14687), Plant Feedstock Genomics for Bioenergy: A Joint Research Program of USDA and DOE (2009-65504-05767), industrial members of the Tree Genomics and Biosafety Research Cooperative at Oregon State University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Forest Research and Environmental Science, Michigan Technological University, 1400 Townsend Drive, Houghton, MI, 49931, USA

    Christine Zawaski, Jim Pickens & Victor Busov

  2. Department of Cell and Molecular Physiology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, USA

    Mahita Kadmiel

  3. Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, 97331-5752, USA

    Cathleen Ma & Steven Strauss

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  1. Christine Zawaski
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  2. Mahita Kadmiel
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  3. Jim Pickens
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  4. Cathleen Ma
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  5. Steven Strauss
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  6. Victor Busov
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Correspondence to Victor Busov.

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Zawaski, C., Kadmiel, M., Pickens, J. et al. Repression of gibberellin biosynthesis or signaling produces striking alterations in poplar growth, morphology, and flowering. Planta 234, 1285–1298 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00425-011-1485-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00425-011-1485-x

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