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Over-expression of an FT-homologous gene of apple induces early flowering in annual and perennial plants

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Abstract

The protein encoded by the FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) gene from Arabidopsis thaliana seems to be the long-searched florigen, and over-expression of FT orthologues resulted in accelerated flower development in annual and perennial plants. In the present study, we isolated two allelic mRNA sequences of an FT-homologous gene from apple, which was designated as MdFT1. Using a SSR motif this gene was mapped on LG 12 of apple. Over-expression of MdFT1 in Arabidopsis and the commercially important tree species poplar and apple itself using the CaMV 35S or the Arabidopsis Suc2 promoter resulted in significant accelerated flowering compared with wild-type plants. Transgenic T0 plants of Arabidopsis flowered 4–6 days on average earlier than wild-type Arabidopsis under LD conditions. Under short-day conditions Suc2::MdFT1 plants of the T1-generation flowered after 66 ± 18 days, while wild-type plants flowered about 22 days later. All transgenic Arabidopsis plants showed a normal habit except for the early flowering phenotype. Early flowering was detected 6–10 months after transformation in transgenic polar clones containing MdFT1 driven by the CaMV 35S, whereas plants of the transgenic apple clone T780 set up its first flowers during in vitro cultivation. Based on our results we conclude that MdFT1 is responsible for inducing flowering and that the function of the apple FT1 gene is conserved in annual herbaceous species as well as perennial woody species. Furthermore, we discuss the role of MdFT1 in flower development with regard to the findings of genetic studies on apple.

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Abbreviations

AFLP:

Amplified fragment length polymorphism

AP1:

APETALA1

CO:

CONSTANS

COL:

CONSTANS like

FT:

FLOWERING LOCUS T

FUL:

FRUITFULL

GFP:

GREEN FLUORESCENT PROTEIN

LD:

Long day

LFY:

LEAFY

LG:

Linkage group

RNAPOLII:

RNA POLYMERASE SUBUNIT II

SD:

Short day

SEP3:

SEPALLATA3

SOC1:

SUPPRESSOR OF OVEREXPRESSION OF CONSTANS 1

SSR:

Simple sequence repeat

Suc2:

Arabidopsis sucrose-H+ symporter gene

TFL1:

TERMINAL FLOWER 1

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Acknowledgments

This research was funded in part by the Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) as well as by the European research project ISAFRUIT. The ISAFRUIT project is funded by the European Commission under the Thematic Priority 5-Food Quality and Safety of the 6th Framework Program of RTD (Contract no. FP6-FOOD-CT-2006-016279). The authors are grateful to Ines Hiller, Kerstin Neumann, Katrin Winkler, Uta Hille, and Ines Polster for their technical assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Plant Breeding, Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel, Olshausenstr. 40, 24118, Kiel, Germany

    Conny Tränkner

  2. Institute of Botany, Leibnitz University Hannover, Herrenhaeuser Str. 2, 30419, Hannover, Germany

    Sandra Lehmann & Achim Gau

  3. Johann Heinrich von Thünen-Institute, Federal Research Institute for Rural Areas, Forestry and Fisheries, Institute for Forest Genetics, Sieker Landstrasse 2, 22927, Grosshansdorf, Germany

    Hans Hoenicka, Matthias Fladung & Denise Lenhardt

  4. Julius Kühn-Institute, Federal Research Centre for Cultivated Plants, Institute for Breeding Research on Horticultural and Fruit Crops, Pillnitzer Platz 3a, 01326, Dresden, Germany

    Magda-Viola Hanke, Frank Dunemann & Henryk Flachowsky

  5. Genome Analysis Platform, CIC bioGUNE, Technology Park of Bizkaia, Building 502, 48160, Derio, Bizkaia, Spain

    Karin Schlangen

  6. Structural and Functional Genomic, Foundation Edmunt Mach, Via E. Mach 1, San Michele All Adige (TN), 38010, Italy

    Mickael Malnoy

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  1. Conny Tränkner
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Correspondence to Henryk Flachowsky.

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C. Tränkner and H. Flachowsky contributed equally to this work.

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Tränkner, C., Lehmann, S., Hoenicka, H. et al. Over-expression of an FT-homologous gene of apple induces early flowering in annual and perennial plants. Planta 232, 1309–1324 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00425-010-1254-2

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