Regulation and Subfunctionalization of Flowering Time Genes in the Allotetraploid Oil Crop

Overview

Journal Front Plant Sci

Date 2020 Dec 17

PMID 33329678

Citations 12

Authors

Sarah Schiessl

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Flowering is a vulnerable, but crucial phase in building crop yield. Proper timing of this period is therefore decisive in obtaining optimal yields. However, genetic regulation of flowering integrates many different environmental signals and is therefore extremely complex. This complexity increases in polyploid crops which carry two or more chromosome sets, like wheat, potato or rapeseed. Here, I summarize the current state of knowledge about flowering time gene copies in rapeseed (), an important oil crop with a complex polyploid history and a close relationship to . The current data show a high demand for more targeted studies on flowering time genes in crops rather than in models, allowing better breeding designs and a deeper understanding of evolutionary principles. Over evolutionary time, some copies of rapeseed flowering time genes changed or lost their original role, resulting in subfunctionalization of the respective homologs. For useful applications in breeding, such patterns of subfunctionalization need to be identified and better understood.

Citing Articles

Transgressive expression and dosage effect of A09 chromosome genes and their homoeologous genes influence the flowering time of resynthesized allopolyploid Brassica napus.

Bai Y, Zhao K, Wang B, Wu L, Xiong Z BMC Plant Biol. 2025; 25(1):226.

PMID: 39972272 PMC: 11837392. DOI: 10.1186/s12870-025-06236-z.

Morphological, Physiological, and Molecular Responses to Heat Stress in Brassicaceae.

Batool I, Ayyaz A, Qin T, Wu X, Chen W, Hannan F Plants (Basel). 2025; 14(2).

PMID: 39861509 PMC: 11768255. DOI: 10.3390/plants14020152.

The story of a decade: Genomics, functional genomics, and molecular breeding in Brassica napus.

Gu J, Guan Z, Jiao Y, Liu K, Hong D Plant Commun. 2024; 5(4):100884.

PMID: 38494786 PMC: 11009362. DOI: 10.1016/j.xplc.2024.100884.

Flowering time: From physiology, through genetics to mechanism.

Maple R, Zhu P, Hepworth J, Wang J, Dean C Plant Physiol. 2024; 195(1):190-212.

PMID: 38417841 PMC: 11060688. DOI: 10.1093/plphys/kiae109.

Exploring silique number in Brassica napus L.: Genetic and molecular advances for improving yield.

Wang H, Li X, Meng B, Fan Y, Khan S, Qian M Plant Biotechnol J. 2024; 22(7):1897-1912.

PMID: 38386569 PMC: 11182599. DOI: 10.1111/pbi.14309.

References

Raman H, Raman R, Qiu Y, Yadav A, Sureshkumar S, Borg L . GWAS hints at pleiotropic roles for FLOWERING LOCUS T in flowering time and yield-related traits in canola. BMC Genomics. 2019; 20(1):636. PMC: 6685183. DOI: 10.1186/s12864-019-5964-y. View

Yu S, Galvao V, Zhang Y, Horrer D, Zhang T, Hao Y . Gibberellin regulates the Arabidopsis floral transition through miR156-targeted SQUAMOSA promoter binding-like transcription factors. Plant Cell. 2012; 24(8):3320-32. PMC: 3462634. DOI: 10.1105/tpc.112.101014. View

Wang J, Hopkins C, Hou J, Zou X, Wang C, Long Y . Promoter variation and transcript divergence in Brassicaceae lineages of FLOWERING LOCUS T. PLoS One. 2012; 7(10):e47127. PMC: 3469537. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0047127. View

Kittipol V, He Z, Wang L, Doheny-Adams T, Langer S, Bancroft I . Genetic architecture of glucosinolate variation in Brassica napus. J Plant Physiol. 2019; 240:152988. PMC: 6739596. DOI: 10.1016/j.jplph.2019.06.001. View

Schiessl S, Williams N, Specht P, Staiger D, Johansson M . Different copies of SENSITIVITY TO RED LIGHT REDUCED 1 show strong subfunctionalization in Brassica napus. BMC Plant Biol. 2019; 19(1):372. PMC: 6704554. DOI: 10.1186/s12870-019-1973-x. View

Hou J, Long Y, Raman H, Zou X, Wang J, Dai S . A Tourist-like MITE insertion in the upstream region of the BnFLC.A10 gene is associated with vernalization requirement in rapeseed (Brassica napus L.). BMC Plant Biol. 2012; 12:238. PMC: 3562271. DOI: 10.1186/1471-2229-12-238. View

Udall J, Quijada P, Lambert B, Osborn T . Quantitative trait analysis of seed yield and other complex traits in hybrid spring rapeseed (Brassica napus L.): 2. Identification of alleles from unadapted germplasm. Theor Appl Genet. 2006; 113(4):597-609. DOI: 10.1007/s00122-006-0324-0. View

Johansson M, Staiger D . SRR1 is essential to repress flowering in non-inductive conditions in Arabidopsis thaliana. J Exp Bot. 2014; 65(20):5811-22. PMC: 4203120. DOI: 10.1093/jxb/eru317. View

Zhou Y, Wang H, Zhou L, Wang M, Li H, Wang M . Analyses of the floral organ morphogenesis and the differentially expressed genes of an apetalous flower mutant in Brassica napus. Plant Cell Rep. 2007; 27(1):9-20. DOI: 10.1007/s00299-007-0426-4. View

10.

Shi J, Li R, Qiu D, Jiang C, Long Y, Morgan C . Unraveling the complex trait of crop yield with quantitative trait loci mapping in Brassica napus. Genetics. 2009; 182(3):851-61. PMC: 2710164. DOI: 10.1534/genetics.109.101642. View

11.

Schiessl S, Quezada-Martinez D, Tebartz E, Snowdon R, Qian L . The vernalisation regulator FLOWERING LOCUS C is differentially expressed in biennial and annual Brassica napus. Sci Rep. 2019; 9(1):14911. PMC: 6797750. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-51212-x. View

12.

Sri T, Gupta B, Tyagi S, Singh A . Homeologs of Brassica SOC1, a central regulator of flowering time, are differentially regulated due to partitioning of evolutionarily conserved transcription factor binding sites in promoters. Mol Phylogenet Evol. 2020; 147:106777. DOI: 10.1016/j.ympev.2020.106777. View

13.

Del Olmo I, Poza-Viejo L, Pineiro M, Jarillo J, Crevillen P . High ambient temperature leads to reduced FT expression and delayed flowering in Brassica rapa via a mechanism associated with H2A.Z dynamics. Plant J. 2019; 100(2):343-356. DOI: 10.1111/tpj.14446. View

14.

Adamidis G, Cartar R, Melathopoulos A, Pernal S, Hoover S . Pollinators enhance crop yield and shorten the growing season by modulating plant functional characteristics: A comparison of 23 canola varieties. Sci Rep. 2019; 9(1):14208. PMC: 6775066. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-50811-y. View

15.

Luo T, Zhang J, Khan M, Liu J, Xu Z, Hu L . Temperature variation caused by sowing dates significantly affects floral initiation and floral bud differentiation processes in rapeseed (Brassica napus L.). Plant Sci. 2018; 271:40-51. DOI: 10.1016/j.plantsci.2018.03.004. View

16.

Borghi M, de Souza L, Yoshida T, Fernie A . Flowers and climate change: a metabolic perspective. New Phytol. 2019; 224(4):1425-1441. DOI: 10.1111/nph.16031. View

17.

Busic A, Kundas S, Morzak G, Belskaya H, Mardetko N, Ivancic Santek M . Recent Trends in Biodiesel and Biogas Production. Food Technol Biotechnol. 2018; 56(2):152-173. PMC: 6117991. DOI: 10.17113/ftb.56.02.18.5547. View

18.

Tudor E, Jones D, He Z, Bancroft I, Trick M, Wells R . QTL-seq identifies BnaFT.A02 and BnaFLC.A02 as candidates for variation in vernalization requirement and response in winter oilseed rape (Brassica napus). Plant Biotechnol J. 2020; 18(12):2466-2481. PMC: 7680531. DOI: 10.1111/pbi.13421. View

19.

Wang J . Regulation of flowering time by the miR156-mediated age pathway. J Exp Bot. 2014; 65(17):4723-30. DOI: 10.1093/jxb/eru246. View

20.

Wu D, Liang Z, Yan T, Xu Y, Xuan L, Tang J . Whole-Genome Resequencing of a Worldwide Collection of Rapeseed Accessions Reveals the Genetic Basis of Ecotype Divergence. Mol Plant. 2018; 12(1):30-43. DOI: 10.1016/j.molp.2018.11.007. View