Skip to main content
SLU publication database (SLUpub)

Research article2023Peer reviewedOpen access

Age- dependent seasonal growth cessation in Populus

Liao, Xiaoli; Su, Yunjie; Klintenaes, Maria; Li, Yue; Sane, Shashank; Wu, Zhihao; Chen, Qihui; Zhang, Bo; Nilsson, Ove; Ding, Jihua

Abstract

In temperate and boreal regions, perennial plants adapt their annual growth cycle to the change of seasons. In natural forests, juvenile seedlings usually display longer growth seasons compared to adult trees to ensure their establishment and survival under canopy shade. However, how trees adjust their annual growth according to their age is not known. In this study, we show that age- dependent seasonal growth cessation is genetically controlled and found that the miR156- SPL3/5 module, a key regulon of vegetative phase change (VPC), also triggers age- dependent growth cessation in Populus trees. We show that miR156promotes shoot elongation during vegetative growth, and its targets SPL3/5s function in the same pathway but as repressors. We find that the miR156-SPL3/5s regulon controls growth cessation in both leaves and shoot apices and through multiple pathways, but with a different mechanism compared to how the miR156-SPL regulon controls VPC in annual plants. Taken together, our results reveal an age- dependent genetic network in mediating seasonal growth cessation, a key phenological process in the climate adaptation of perennial trees.

Keywords

tree phenology; age-dependency; bud set; bud break; climate adaptation

Published in

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
2023, Volume: 120, number: 48, article number: e2311226120