Suppression of B function by chimeric repressor gene-silencing technology (CRES-T) reduces the petaloid tepal identity in transgenic Lilium sp

PLoS One. 2020 Aug 3;15(8):e0237176. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0237176. eCollection 2020.

Abstract

Some monocotyledonous plants, including liliaceous, amaryllidaceous and iridaceous ones, produce flowers with petaloid tepals in whorls 1 and 2 organs. For explaining the molecular mechanism of two-layered petaloid tepal development, the modified ABC model has been proposed, in which B class genes are expressed in whorl 1 organs as well as in whorls 2 and 3 organs. We have previously obtained results strongly support the modified ABC model by chimeric repressor gene-silencing technology (CRES-T)-mediated suppression of B function in the liliaceous plant Tricyrtis sp. In the present study, we introduced a CRES-T construct derived from the B class gene of Tricyrtis sp. (TrihDEFa-SRDX) into Lilium sp. in order to examine the effect of suppressing B function on the floral organ identity. Flowers of transgenic plants did not open fully and had pale pink-colored tepals with decreased numbers of papillae on the adaxial side in whorls 1 and 2 compared with those of non-transgenic plants. No apparent morphological alterations were observed in whorls 3 and 4 organs. Both the amount of total anthocyanins and the expression levels of endogenous flavonoid biosynthesis-related genes (LhMYB12, LhbHLH2, LhCHS, LhF3H, LhF3'H, LhDFR and LhANS) decreased in whorls 1 and 2 organs of transgenic plants compared with non-transgenic plants. In addition, the expression levels of endogenous B class genes (LFDEF, LFGLOA and LFGLOB) decreased in transgenic plants and the level was negatively correlated with the degree of morphological alteration. Thus suppression of B function may reduce the identity of petaloid tepals in whorls 1 and 2 of transgenic Lilium sp.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Flowers / anatomy & histology
  • Flowers / genetics*
  • Flowers / metabolism
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Plant
  • Gene Silencing*
  • Lilium / genetics*
  • Plant Proteins / genetics
  • Plant Proteins / metabolism
  • Plants, Genetically Modified / genetics*
  • Transcription Factors / genetics
  • Transcription Factors / metabolism

Substances

  • Plant Proteins
  • Transcription Factors

Grants and funding

This work was supported in part by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (Nos. 23580037, 16380024 and 15K07287 to M.N.) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan (URL:https://www.jsps.go.jp/english/). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.