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Research article - Peer-reviewed, 2013

Early Cone Setting in Picea abies acrocona Is Associated with Increased Transcriptional Activity of a MADS Box Transcription Factor

Uddenberg, Daniel; Reimegård, Johan; Clapham, David; Almqvist, Curt; Von Arnold, Sara; Emanuelsson, Olof; Sundström, Jens

Abstract

Conifers normally go through a long juvenile period, for Norway spruce (Picea abies) around 20 to 25 years, before developing male and female cones. We have grown plants from inbred crosses of a naturally occurring spruce mutant (acrocona). One-fourth of the segregating acrocona plants initiate cones already in their second growth cycle, suggesting control by a single locus. The early cone-setting properties of the acrocona mutant were utilized to identify candidate genes involved in vegetative-to-reproductive phase change in Norway spruce. Poly(A(+)) RNA samples from apical and basal shoots of cone-setting and non-cone-setting plants were subjected to high-throughput sequencing (RNA-seq). We assembled and investigated 33,383 expressed putative protein-coding acrocona transcripts. Eight transcripts were differentially expressed between selected sample pairs. One of these (Acr42124_1) was significantly up-regulated in apical shoot samples from cone-setting acrocona plants, and the encoded protein belongs to the MADS box gene family of transcription factors. Using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction with independently derived plant material, we confirmed that the MADS box gene is up-regulated in both needles and buds of cone-inducing shoots when reproductive identity is determined. Our results constitute important steps for the development of a rapid cycling model system that can be used to study gene function in conifers. In addition, our data suggest the involvement of a MADS box transcription factor in the vegetative-to-reproductive phase change in Norway spruce.

Published in

Plant Physiology
2013, volume: 161, number: 2, pages: 813-823
Publisher: AMER SOC PLANT BIOLOGISTS

Authors' information

Uddenberg, Daniel
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Plant Biology
Reimegård, Johan
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Plant Biology
Almqvist, Curt
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Plant Biology
Emanuelsson, Olof
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Plant Biology

UKÄ Subject classification

Developmental Biology
Plant Biotechnology

Publication Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1104/pp.112.207746

URI (permanent link to this page)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/43647