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Characterization of Frond and Flower Development and Identification of FT and FD Genes From Duckweed Lemna aequinoctialis Nd

ABSTRACT: Duckweeds (Araceae: Lemnoideae) are aquatic monocotyledonous plants that are characterized by their small size, rapid growth, and wide distribution. Developmental processes regulating the formation of their small leaf-like structures, called fronds, and tiny flowers are not well characterized. In many plant species, flowering is promoted by the florigen activation complex, whose major components are florigen FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) protein and transcription factor FD protein. How this complex is regulated at the molecular level during duckweed flowering is also not well understood. In this study, we characterized the course of developmental changes during frond development and flower formation in Lemna aequinoctialis Nd, a short-day plant. Detailed observations of frond and flower development revealed that cell proliferation in the early stages of frond development is active as can be seen in the separate regions corresponding to two budding pouches in the proximal region of the mother frond. L. aequinoctialis produces two stamens of different lengths with the longer stamen growing more rapidly. Using high-throughput RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) and de novo assembly of transcripts from plants induced to flower, we identified the L. aequinoctialis FT and FD genes, whose products in other angiosperms form a transcriptional complex to promote flowering. We characterized the protein-protein interaction of duckweed FT and FD in yeast and examined the functions of the two gene products by overexpression in Arabidopsis. We found that L. aequinoctialis FTL1 promotes flowering, whereas FTL2 suppresses flowering.

SUBMITTER: Yoshida A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8542802 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:BackgroundThe plant body in duckweed species has undergone reduction and simplification from the ancient Spirodela species towards more derived Wolffia species. Among the five duckweed genera, Wolffia members are rootless and represent the smallest and most reduced species. A better understanding of Wolffia frond architecture is necessary to fully explore duckweed evolution.ResultsWe conducted a comprehensive study of the morphology and anatomy of Wolffia globosa, the only Wolffia species in China. We first used X-ray microtomography imaging to reveal the three-dimensional and internal structure of the W. globosa frond. This showed that new fronds rapidly budded from the hollow reproductive pocket of the mother fronds and that several generations at various developmental stages could coexist in a single W. globosa frond. Using light microscopy, we observed that the meristem area of the W. globosa frond was located at the base of the reproductive pocket and composed of undifferentiated cells that continued to produce new buds. A single epidermal layer surrounded the W. globosa frond, and the mesophyll cells varied from small and dense palisade-like parenchyma cells to large, vacuolated cells from the ventral to the dorsal part. Furthermore, W. globosa fronds contained all the same organelles as other angiosperms; the most prominent organelles were chloroplasts with abundant starch grains.ConclusionsOur study revealed that the reproductive strategy of W. globosa plants enables the rapid accumulation of biomass and the wide distribution of this species in various habitats. The reduced body plan and size of Wolffia are consistent with our observation that relatively few cell types are present in these plants. We also propose that W. globosa plants are not only suitable for the study of structural reduction in higher plants, but also an ideal system to explore fundamental developmental processes of higher plants that cannot be addressed using other model plants.

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Characterization of Frond and Flower Development and Identification of FT and FD Genes From Duckweed Lemna aequinoctialis Nd

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