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Mass flowering of the tropical tree S horea beccariana was preceded by expression changes in flowering and drought‐responsive genes
Author(s) -
Kobayashi Masaki J.,
Takeuchi Yayoi,
Kenta Tanaka,
Kume Tomonori,
Diway Bibian,
Shimizu Kentaro K.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
molecular ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.619
H-Index - 225
eISSN - 1365-294X
pISSN - 0962-1083
DOI - 10.1111/mec.12344
Subject(s) - biology , gene , genome , transcriptome , botany , plant biology , gene expression , genetics
Community‐level mass flowering, known as general flowering, which occurs in S outh‐ E ast A sia at supra‐annual irregular intervals, is considered a particularly spectacular phenomenon in tropical ecology. Recent studies have proposed several proximate factors inducing general flowering, such as drought and falls in minimum temperature. However, limited empirical data on the developmental and physiological processes have been available to test the significance of such factors. To overcome this limitation and test the hypotheses that general flowering is triggered by the proposed factors, we conducted an ‘ecological transcriptome’ study of a mass flowering species, S horea beccariana , comparing meteorological data with genome‐wide expression patterns obtained using next‐generation sequencing. Among the 98 flowering‐related genes identified, the homologs of a floral pathway integrator, Sb FT , and a floral repressor, Sb SVP , showed dramatic transcriptional changes before flowering, and their flowering functions were confirmed using transgenic A rabidopsis thaliana . Expression in drought‐responsive and sucrose‐induced genes also changed before flowering. All these expression changes occurred when the flowering‐inducing level of drought was reached, as estimated using data from the preceding 10 years. These genome‐wide expression data support the hypothesis that drought is a trigger for general flowering.