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Phytochrome C plays a major role in the acceleration of wheat flowering under long-day photoperiod.

ABSTRACT: Phytochromes are dimeric proteins that function as red and far-red light sensors influencing nearly every phase of the plant life cycle. Of the three major phytochrome families found in flowering plants, phytochrome C (PHYC) is the least understood. In Arabidopsis and rice, PHYC is unstable and functionally inactive unless it heterodimerizes with another phytochrome. However, when expressed in an Arabidopsis phy-null mutant, wheat PHYC forms signaling active homodimers that translocate into the nucleus in red light to mediate photomorphogenic responses. Tetraploid wheat plants homozygous for loss-of-function mutations in all PHYC copies (phyC(AB)) flower on average 108 d later than wild-type plants under long days but only 19 d later under short days, indicating a strong interaction between PHYC and photoperiod. This interaction is further supported by the drastic down-regulation in the phyC(AB) mutant of the central photoperiod gene photoperiod 1 (PPD1) and its downstream target flowering locus T1, which are required for the promotion of flowering under long days. These results implicate light-dependent, PHYC-mediated activation of PPD1 expression in the acceleration of wheat flowering under inductive long days. Plants homozygous for the phyC(AB) mutations also show altered profiles of circadian clock and clock-output genes, which may also contribute to the observed differences in heading time. Our results highlight important differences in the photoperiod pathways of the temperate grasses with those of well-studied model plant species.

SUBMITTER: Chen A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4104863 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Phytochrome C plays a major role in the acceleration of wheat flowering under long-day photoperiod.

Chen Andrew A Li Chengxia C Hu Wei W Lau Mei Yee MY Lin Huiqiong H Rockwell Nathan C NC Martin Shelley S SS Jernstedt Judith A JA Lagarias J Clark JC Dubcovsky Jorge J

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20140624 28

Phytochromes are dimeric proteins that function as red and far-red light sensors influencing nearly every phase of the plant life cycle. Of the three major phytochrome families found in flowering plants, phytochrome C (PHYC) is the least understood. In Arabidopsis and rice, PHYC is unstable and functionally inactive unless it heterodimerizes with another phytochrome. However, when expressed in an Arabidopsis phy-null mutant, wheat PHYC forms signaling active homodimers that translocate into the ...[more]

PMID: 24961368

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Project description:Cassava is a staple food crop in the tropics, and is of particular importance in Africa. Recent development of genomic selection technology have improved the speed of cassava breeding; however, cassava flower initiation and development remains a bottleneck. The objectives of the current studies were to elucidate the effect of photoperiod, temperature and their interactions on the time of flowering and flower development in controlled environments, and to use RNA-sequencing to identify transcriptome expression underlying these environmental responses. Compared to a normal tropical day-length of 12 h, increasing the photoperiod by 4 h or decreasing the air temperature from 34/31 to 22°/19°C (day/night) substantially hastened the time to flowering. For both photoperiod and temperature, the environment most favorable for flowering was opposite the one for storage root harvest index. There was a pronounced treatment interaction: at warm day-time temperatures, percent flowering was low, and photoperiod had little effect. In contrast, at cooler temperatures, percent flowering increased, and long-day (LD) photoperiod had a strong effect in hastening flowering. In response to temperature, many differentially expressed genes in the sugar, phase-change, and flowering-time-integrator pathways had expression/flowering patterns in the same direction as in Arabidopsis (positive or negative) even though the effect of temperature on flowering operates in the reverse direction in cassava compared to Arabidopsis. Three trehalose-6-phosphate-synthase-1 (TPS1) genes and four members of the SPL gene family had significantly increased expression at cool temperature, suggesting sugar signaling roles in flower induction. In response to LD photoperiod, regulatory genes were expressed as in Arabidopsis and other LD flowering plants. Several hormone-related genes were expressed in response to both photoperiod and temperature. In summary, these findings provide insight on photoperiod and temperature responses and underlying gene expression that may assist breeding programs to manipulate flowering for more rapid crop improvement.

Project description:The USDA-ARS Sugarcane Variety Development Program in Houma, LA aims to maximize the number of panicles available for crossing through artificial manipulation of the environment. In a three-year study, the effect of growing media, fertilizer treatment, and their interaction on sugarcane flowering (% of panicles emerged), and number of days to flowering (DTF) under an artificial photoperiod treatment were assessed. The commercially-available sugarcane cultivar, 'HoCP 96-540' was planted in 2.8-L pots and subjected to the standard local photoperiod treatment. The cultivar was planted in four growing media (RediEarth Seedling and Germination Mix, Fafard, Metro-Mix®902, and Metro-Mix®900) and subjected to three different fertilizer applications. In the control treatment, fertilizer application was stopped prior to the commencement of the photoperiod treatment as practiced in some sugarcane breeding programs. The continuous treatment consisted of an application of a 10 ml solution of a NPK three times a week between June and October. The partial treatment consisted of applications of the same NPK solution applied post-initiation between September and October. Nitrogen starvation prior to the commencement of the photoperiod treatment is generally accepted to improve flower initiation; thus the standard practice is to cease nitrogen application two weeks prior to beginning a photoperiod regime. The growing media used in this study did not have a significant effect on days to flowering or percent panicle emergence. In our study, the control fertilizer treatment showed a flowering percentage across all growing media types of 21.2% less than a continuous fertilization regime. Furthermore, a significant trend was observed between fertilization treatments and days to flowering, with the continuous treatment producing panicles, on average across growing media, four days earlier than the control treatment, and six days earlier than the partial treatment. Evidence across this three-year experiment indicates that we should consider modifying plant nutrition management as soil fertility was found to be inadequate.

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Phytochrome C plays a major role in the acceleration of wheat flowering under long-day photoperiod.

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Phytochrome C plays a major role in the acceleration of wheat flowering under long-day photoperiod.

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