FLOWERING LOCUS T Triggers Early and Fertile Flowering in Glasshouse Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz)

Abstract

Accelerated breeding of plant species has the potential to help challenge environmental and biochemical cues to support global crop security. We demonstrate the over-expression of Arabidopsis FLOWERING LOCUS T in Agrobacterium-mediated transformed cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz; cultivar 60444) to trigger early flowering in glasshouse-grown plants. An event seldom seen in a glasshouse environment, precocious flowering and mature inflorescence were obtained within 4–5 months from planting of stem cuttings. Manual pollination using pistillate and staminate flowers from clonal propagants gave rise to viable seeds that germinated into morphologically typical progeny. This strategy comes at a time when accelerated crop breeding is of increasing importance to complement progressive genome editing techniques. 

Keywords

cassava; Manihot esculenta Crantz; flowering; FLOWERING LOCUS T; breeding; biotechnology; grafting; seed; recalcitrant crops

Published in

Plants
2017, Volume: 6, number: 2, article number: 22

SLU Authors

• Hennig, Lars

  • Department of Plant Biology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Plant Biotechnology
Genetics and Breeding


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/plants6020022

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/84560