Transcriptomic response for revealing the molecular mechanism of oat flowering under different photoperiods

Man Zhang; Yuan Jiang; Haixiao Dong; Xiaohui Shan; Juan Tian; Moke Sun; Feiyue Ma; Changzhong Ren; Yaping Yuan

doi:10.3389/fpls.2023.1279107

Transcriptomic response for revealing the molecular mechanism of oat flowering under different photoperiods

Front Plant Sci. 2023 Oct 31:14:1279107. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1279107. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Man Zhang^#^{1

2}, Yuan Jiang^#¹, Haixiao Dong¹, Xiaohui Shan¹, Juan Tian², Moke Sun², Feiyue Ma², Changzhong Ren², Yaping Yuan¹

Affiliations

¹ Jilin Engineering Research Center for Crop Biotechnology Breeding, College of Plant Science, Jilin University, Changchun, China.
² Key Laboratory of Biotechnology of Jinlin Province, Baicheng Academy of Agricultural Science, Baicheng, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Proper flowering is essential for the reproduction of all kinds of plants. Oat is an important cereal and forage crop; however, its cultivation is limited because it is a long-day plant. The molecular mechanism by which oats respond to different photoperiods is still unclear. In this study, oat plants were treated under long-day and short-day photoperiods for 10 days, 15 days, 20 days, 25 days, 30 days, 40 days and 50 days, respectively. Under the long-day treatment, oats entered the reproductive stage, while oats remained vegetative under the short-day treatment. Forty-two samples were subjected to RNA-Seq to compare the gene expression patterns of oat under long- and short-day photoperiods. A total of 634-5,974 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified for each time point, while the floral organ primordium differentiation stage showed the largest number of DEGs, and the spikelet differentiation stage showed the smallest number. Gene Ontology (GO) analysis showed that the plant hormone signaling transduction and hormone metabolism processes significantly changed in the photoperiod regulation of flowering time in oat. Moreover, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) and Mapman analysis revealed that the DEGs were mainly concentrated in the circadian rhythm, protein antenna pathways and sucrose metabolism process. Additionally, transcription factors (TFs) involved in various flowering pathways were explored. Combining all this information, we established a molecular model of oat flowering induced by a long-day photoperiod. Taken together, the long-day photoperiod has a large effect at both the morphological and transcriptomic levels, and these responses ultimately promote flowering in oat. Our findings expand the understanding of oat as a long-day plant, and the explored genes could be used in molecular breeding to help break its cultivation limitations in the future.

Keywords: flowering; molecular mechanism; oat; photoperiod; transcriptome.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was supported by the China Agriculture Research System of Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (CARS07 to CR), Jilin Development and Reform Commission Project, Research and Application of Key Technologies in Oat Molecular Breeding (2021FGWCXNLJSSZ04) and Baicheng Science and Technology Development program (202211).