Expression Profiling of Four Mango FT/TFL1-Encoding Genes under Different Fruit Load Conditions, and Their Involvement in Flowering Regulation

oleh: Itamar Gafni, Avinash Chandra Rai, Eyal Halon, Tali Zviran, Isaac Sisai, Alon Samach, Vered Irihimovitch

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: MDPI AG 2022-09-01

Deskripsi

Plant flowering is antagonistically modulated by similar FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) and TERMINAL FLOWER 1 (TFL1) proteins. In mango (<i>Mangifera indica</i> L.), flowering is induced by cold temperatures, unless the tree is juvenile or the adult tree had a high fruit load (HFL) in the summer. Here, we studied the effects of juvenility and fruit load on the expression of four <i>MiFT</i>/<i>TFL1</i> genes cloned from the mango ‘Shelly’ cultivar. Ectopic expression of <i>MiFT1</i> in <i>Arabidopsis</i> resulted in early flowering, whereas over-expression of <i>MiFT2</i> and the two cloned <i>MiTFL1</i> genes repressed flowering. Moreover, juvenility was positively correlated with higher transcript levels of <i>MiFT2</i> and both <i>MiTFL1</i>s. In trees with a low fruit load, leaf <i>MiFT1</i> expression increased in winter, whereas HFL delayed its upregulation. <i>MiFT2</i> expression was upregulated in both leaves and buds under both fruit load conditions. Downregulation of both <i>MITFL1</i>s in buds was associated with a decrease in regional temperatures under both conditions; nevertheless, HFL delayed the decrease in their accumulation. Our results suggest that cold temperature has opposite effects on the expression of <i>MiFT1</i> and the <i>MiTFL1</i>s, thereby inducing flowering, whereas HFL represses flowering by both suppressing <i>MiFT1</i> upregulation and delaying <i>MiTFL1s</i> downregulation. The apparent flowering-inhibitory functions of <i>MiFT2</i> are discussed.