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CONSTANS delays flowering and affects tuber yield in potato

  • Original Papers
  • Published:
Biologia Plantarum

Abstract

CONSTANS (CO) has a central role in the photoperiodic regulation of flowering in Arabidopsis thaliana. We show here that potato (Solanum tuberosum ssp. andigena) plants constitutively expressing Arabidopsis CO (pACo plants) flower late under all photoperiodic conditions tested. Exogenous application of gibberellic acid to pACo plants corrected their short stem phenotype but not their late flowering. To further understand the effect of CO in potato, we used three photoperiodic conditions: short days (SD), which strongly induce tuberisation of wild type plants, SD supplemented with a night break (SD+NB), which are moderately inductive, and tuberisation-inhibiting long days. Tuberisation of pACo plants was delayed under SD and very strongly delayed or completely inhibited under SD+NB, suggesting that CO affects an autonomous pathway controlling potato tuberisation. In addition, tuber yield, a trait of high agronomic relevance, was significantly increased in pACo plants expressing moderate CO levels. Our results indicate that CO affects flowering and stem elongation through distinct mechanisms and suggest that its effects on flowering and tuberisation in potato are photoperiod-independent.

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Abbreviations

CO:

CONSTANS

COL:

CONSTANS-like

GA:

gibberellin

GA3 :

gibberellic acid

Hd1:

heading date 1

LD:

long day

PHYB:

phytochrome B

SD:

short day

SD+NB:

short day plus night break

WT:

wild type

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Plant Molecular Genetics, CSIC-IRTA, Instituto de Biología Molecular de Barcelona, Jordi Girona 18-26, E-08034, Barcelona, Spain

    N. D. González-Schain & P. Suárez-López

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  1. N. D. González-Schain
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  2. P. Suárez-López
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Correspondence to P. Suárez-López.

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González-Schain, N.D., Suárez-López, P. CONSTANS delays flowering and affects tuber yield in potato. Biol Plant 52, 251–258 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10535-008-0054-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10535-008-0054-z

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