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FT-like paralogs are repressed by an SVP protein during the floral transition in Phalaenopsis orchid

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An SVP protein, PhSVP, bound to the CArG-boxes in the promoter regions of FT-like paralogs and repressed their expression, thus affecting the floral transition in Phalaenopsis orchid.

Abstract

Phalaenopsis is an important ornamental flower native to tropical rain forests. It usually reaches vegetative maturity after 4–5 leaves and, after a juvenile stage, forms a flower spike (inflorescence) from the axillary buds. The PEBP gene family encodes a phosphatidyl-ethanolamine-binding protein (PEBP) domain involved in regulating flowering and other aspects of plant development. Here, we identified eight PEBP family genes in Phalaenopsis and detected the expression patterns of seven of them in various organs. Among them, PhFT1 (Phalaenopsis hybrid FLOWERING LOCUS T1), PhFT3, PhFT5, and PhMFT (Phalaenopsis hybrid MOTHER OF FT AND TFL1) promoted flowering in transgenic Arabidopsis, while PhFT6 inhibited flowering. PhSVP (Phalaenopsis hybrid SHORT VEGETATIVE PHASE), an SVP protein that repressed flowering in Arabidopsis, bound to the CArG-boxes in the promoter regions of PhFT3, PhFT6, and PhMFT in a yeast one-hybrid assay. Additionally, dual-luciferase and transient expression assays showed that PhSVP significantly inhibits the expression of both PhFT3 and PhFT6. Together, our work provides a comprehensive understanding of the PhFT-like genes that can promote or repress flowering, and it suggests strategies for regulating the floral transition in Phalaenopsis that exploit the evolutionary versatility of PhFTs to respond to various signals stimuli.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Prof. Xiaolan Zhang of China Agricultural University for sharing the ft-10 and tfl1-11 seeds and vectors for the yeast assays, Dr. Ze Wu of Nanjing Agricultural University for providing vectors for the dual-luciferase reporter assay, and Dr. Ji Li of Nanjing Agricultural University for proving the pGreen vector. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31372101 and No. 31701960) and the National Key R&D Program of China (2020YFD1000400).

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  1. Li Jiang and Xiaoxiao Jiang have contributed equally to this work.

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  1. Department of Horticulture, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, 210095, China

    Li Jiang, Xiaoxiao Jiang, Yanna Li, Yongxia Gao, Shiyao Wang, Yuehua Ma & Guangdong Wang

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Contributions

GW and LJ designed the experiments, analyzed the data and wrote the paper. LJ, XJ, YL, YG, SW and YM performed the experiments.

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Correspondence to Guangdong Wang.

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Supplementary file2 (DOC 32 KB)

299_2021_2805_MOESM3_ESM.jpg

Supplementary file3 (JPG 2280 KB) Cis-regulatory element analysis of PhFT3, PhFT6 and PhMFT and their homologs from Arabidopsis. The promoter regions (2–3 kb upstream of the transcription start site) were scanned for cis-regulatory elements. Eight groups of cis-regulatory elements (abiotic, biotic, tissue-specific, light responsive, core promoter element, auxin responsive, cell cycle and others) are listed on the x axis, and gene names are listed on the y axis. The color key from white (low) to dark orange (high) indicates the number of cis-regulatory elements in the promoter region of each gene.

299_2021_2805_MOESM4_ESM.jpg

Supplementary file4 (JPG 1337 KB) Phylogenetic tree of PhSVP and other plant SVP proteins. The red dot marks the SVP from Phalaenopsis. At, Arabidopsis thaliana; Cg, Cymbidium goeringii; As, Apostasia shenzhenica; Dc, Dendrobium catenatum; Lp, Lilium pumilum; Nn, Nelumbo nucifera; Vv, Vitis vinifera; Ac, Actinidia chinensis. The accession numbers or gene ID numbers of SVPs in TAIR, GenBank or OrchidBase are as follows: PhSVP (MG560826), AtSVP1 (AT2G22540), AtSVP2 (AT4G24540), CgSVP1 (MF462083), CgSVP2 (MF462098), CgSVP3 (MF462082), AsSVP (Ash016779), DcSVP (Dca020215), LpSVP (AXE75656), NnSVP (XP_010254525), VvSVP (XP_019073897), AcSVP1 (JF838216), AcSVP2 (JF838217), AcSVP3 (JF838218) and AcSVP4 (JF838219).

299_2021_2805_MOESM5_ESM.jpg

Supplementary file5 (JPG 795 KB) Heterologous expression of PhSVP in wild-type Arabidopsis. (a) Phenotypes of Pro35S:PhSVP#1 and Pro35S:PhSVP#2 transgenic plants. (b) Days to flowering and rosette leaf number of Pro35S:PhSVP transgenic plants. V/C, empty-vector/control Arabidopsis (Pro35S:GFP/Col-0). Asterisks represent significant differences derived from one-way ANOVA followed by Dunnett‘s multiple comparisons tests (**, P < 0.01).

299_2021_2805_MOESM6_ESM.jpg

Supplementary file6 (JPG 1214 KB) Phenotypic characterizations of Pro35S:PhFT1/ft-10 and Pro35S:PhFT5/ft-10 transgenic plants.

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Jiang, L., Jiang, X., Li, Y. et al. FT-like paralogs are repressed by an SVP protein during the floral transition in Phalaenopsis orchid. Plant Cell Rep 41, 233–248 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-021-02805-2

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