Inhibition of flowering by gibberellins in the woody plant Jatropha curcas is restored by overexpression of JcFT

Ping Huang; Jie Yang; Jiapeng Ke; Li Cai; Yingxiong Hu; Jun Ni; Chaoqiong Li; Zeng-Fu Xu; Mingyong Tang

doi:10.1016/j.plantsci.2024.112100

Inhibition of flowering by gibberellins in the woody plant Jatropha curcas is restored by overexpression of JcFT

Plant Sci. 2024 Apr 26:344:112100. doi: 10.1016/j.plantsci.2024.112100. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Ping Huang¹, Jie Yang², Jiapeng Ke², Li Cai², Yingxiong Hu², Jun Ni², Chaoqiong Li², Zeng-Fu Xu³, Mingyong Tang⁴

Affiliations

¹ CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Plant Resources and Sustainable Use, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Innovative Academy of Seed Design, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Yunnan 666303, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
² CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Plant Resources and Sustainable Use, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Innovative Academy of Seed Design, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Yunnan 666303, China.
³ CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Plant Resources and Sustainable Use, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Innovative Academy of Seed Design, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Yunnan 666303, China; Key Laboratory of National Forestry and Grassland Administration on Cultivation of Fast-Growing Timber in Central South China, College of Forestry, Guangxi University, Nanning, Guangxi 530004, China. Electronic address: zfxu@gxu.edu.cn.
⁴ CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Plant Resources and Sustainable Use, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Innovative Academy of Seed Design, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Yunnan 666303, China; Center of Economic Botany, Core Botanical Gardens, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Mengla 666303, China. Electronic address: tangmingyong@xtbg.ac.cn.

PMID: 38679393
DOI: 10.1016/j.plantsci.2024.112100

Abstract

Jatropha curcas (J. curcas) is a perennial oil-seed plant with vigorous vegetative growth but relatively poor reproductive growth and low seed yield. Gibberellins (GAs) promotes flowering in most annual plants but inhibits flowering in many woody plants, including J. curcas. However, the underlying mechanisms of GA inhibits flowering in perennial woody plants remain unclear. Here, we found that overexpression of the GA biosynthesis gene JcGA20ox1 inhibits flowering in J. curcas and in J. curcas × J. integerrima hybrids. Consistent with this finding, overexpression of the GA catabolic gene JcGA2ox6 promotes flowering in J. curcas. qRTPCR revealed that inhibits floral transition by overexpressing JcGA20ox1 resulted from a decrease in the expression of JcFT and other flowering-related genes, which was restored by overexpressing JcFT in J. curcas. Overexpression of JcGA20ox1 or JcGA2ox6 reduced seed yield, but overexpression of JcFT significantly increased seed yield. Furthermore, hybridization experiments showed that the reduction in seed yield caused by overexpression of JcGA20ox1 or JcGA2ox6 was partially restored by the overexpression of JcFT. In addition, JcGA20ox1, JcGA2ox6 and JcFT were also found to be involved in the regulation of seed oil content and endosperm development. In conclusion, our study revealed that the inhibitory effect of GA on flowering is mediated through JcFT and demonstrated the effects of JcGA20ox1, JcGA2ox6 and JcFT on agronomic traits in J. curcas. This study also indicates the potential value of GA metabolism genes and JcFT in the breeding of new varieties of woody oil-seed plants.

Keywords: Floral transition; Florigen; Hybridization; JcGA20ox1; JcGA2ox6; Yield.