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Identification of a gene involved in the juvenile-to-adult transition (JAT) in cultivated olive trees

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Abstract

The juvenile-to-adult transition is a complex and poorly understood process in plant development required to reach reproductive competence. For woody plants, knowledge of this transition is even scantier and no genes have been definitively identified as involved in this transition. To search for genes involved in the juvenile-to-adult transition in olive, we constructed juvenile and adult subtractive cDNA gene libraries and identified genes that were differentially expressed in the juvenile and adult phases. In the analysis of theses libraries, we found 13 differentially expressed genes. One of these genes designated as juvenile to adult transition (JAT) was of special interest because it was highly expressed at the mRNA level in the early developmental phases but repressed in the adult phase. The analysis of mutant trees altered in the juvenile-to-adult transition, as well as a segregating progeny of 31 trees from a “Picual” x “Jabaluna” cross, support the contention that its activity might be required for a non-delayed transition. The study of an Arabidopsis thaliana JAT mutant strain confirmed this hypothesis as it showed a delayed flowering phenotype. JAT is expressed in different parts of the plant, showing an unexpectedly high level of mRNA in the roots. However, the JAT expression level is not determined by the distance to the roots, but rather depends on the developmental stage of the branch meristems. JAT is a widely represented gene in plants that appears to be involved in the control of the juvenile-to-adult transition in olive.

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Acknowledgments

Two-month-old olive plants were kindly provided by Dr Araceli Barceló, from Centro IFAPA “Churriana” Málaga. DNA sequencing was carried out and supported by the Servicios Técnicos de Investigación, Universidad de Jaén. This work was financed by the Universidad de Jaén project OA/3/2004 and Junta de Andalucía support to Groups CVI258 and CVI286.

Ethical standards

The experiments performed in this work comply with the laws of Spain and the European Union.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Luisa Saniger

    Present address: Centro La Mojonera, IFAPA, La Mojonera, Almería, Spain

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Grupo de Señalización Molecular y Sistemas Antioxidantes en Plantas, Unidad Asociada al CSIC (EEZ), Universidad de Jaén, Jaén, Spain

    Ana Fernández-Ocaña & Juan Bautista Barroso

  2. Grupo de Estudios de Patologías Humanas, Universidad de Jaén, Jaén, Spain

    Mari Carmen García-López, Jaime Jiménez-Ruiz, Luisa Saniger, David Macías, Francisco Navarro, Ricardo Oya & Francisco Luque

  3. Centro Alameda del Obispo, IFAPA, Córdoba, Spain

    Angjelina Belaj & Raul de la Rosa

  4. Departamento de Bioquímica, Biología Celular y Molecular de Plantas, Estación Experimental del Zaidín (EEZ), CSIC, Granada, Spain

    Francisco J. Corpas

  5. Departamento de Biología Experimental, Universidad de Jaén, Campus de las Lagunillas s/n. Edif. B-3, 23071, Jaén, Spain

    Francisco Luque

Authors
  1. Ana Fernández-Ocaña
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  2. Mari Carmen García-López
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  7. Ricardo Oya
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  8. Angjelina Belaj
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  9. Raul de la Rosa
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  10. Francisco J. Corpas
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Francisco Luque.

Additional information

Communicated by A. Dandekar

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Figure s1

Fast minimum evolution tree of the closest to O. europaea JAT peptide sequences present in GenBank database: Phylogenetic tree of the closest peptide sequences to the O. europaea JAT peptide. The sequences inside the closed line are probable JAT orthologs (PPT 402 kb)

Figure s2

Multiple alignment of JAT amino acid sequence and the five more similar proteins present in GenBank database: Amino acids identical to the upper sequence are shown as dots. When a position has the same amino acid for at least three of the six sequences, they are shown with black shadows while similar amino acids are indicated by grey shadows (PPT 146 kb)

Figure s3

JAT hydrophobicity and transmembrane-prediction diagrams and putative domains: The bar below the hydrophobicity diagram represents the amino acid position. The putative phosphorylase family domain is shown. TMD means putative transmembrane domains; black box for high probability of the predicted transmembrane domain and light grey for moderate probability. PNP_UDP_1, means phosphorylase superfamily; Pfs, means nucleoside phosphorylase [nucleotide transport and metabolism]; PRK05584, means 5&apos,-methylthioadenosine/S-adenosylhomocysteine nucleosidase; PRK06714, means S-adenosylhomocysteine nucleosidase; DeoD, means Purine-nucleoside phosphorylase [nucleotide transport and metabolism]; PRK07077, hypothetical protein (provisional); PRK06698, means bifunctional 5'-methylthioadenosine/S-adenosylhomocysteine nucleosidase (PPT 69 kb)

Figure s4

JAT signal peptide prediction by Philius algorithm: Result of the prediction Philius algorithm for the JAT deduced protein (PPT 70 kb)

Table s1

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Fernández-Ocaña, A., Carmen García-López, M., Jiménez-Ruiz, J. et al. Identification of a gene involved in the juvenile-to-adult transition (JAT) in cultivated olive trees. Tree Genetics & Genomes 6, 891–903 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11295-010-0299-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11295-010-0299-5

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