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Fruit‐dependent epigenetic regulation of flowering in Citrus
Author(s) -
Agustí Manuel,
Mesejo Carlos,
MuñozFambuetalia,
VeraSirera Francisco,
Lucas Miguel,
MartínezFuentes Amparo,
Reig Carmina,
Iglesias Domingo J.,
PrimoMillo Eduardo,
Blázquez Miguel A.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
new phytologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.742
H-Index - 244
eISSN - 1469-8137
pISSN - 0028-646X
DOI - 10.1111/nph.16044
Subject(s) - meristem , perennial plant , biology , epigenetics , botany , shoot , repressor , growing season , arabidopsis , horticulture , gene , gene expression , genetics , mutant
Summary In many perennial plants, seasonal flowering is primarily controlled by environmental conditions, but in certain polycarpic plants, environmental signals are locally gated by the presence of developing fruits initiated in the previous season through an unknown mechanism. Polycarpy is defined as the ability of plants to undergo several rounds of reproduction during their lifetime, alternating vegetative and reproductive meristems in the same individual. To understand how fruits regulate flowering in polycarpic plants, we focused on alternate bearing in Citrus trees that had been experimentally established as fully flowering or nonflowering. We found that the presence of the fruit causes epigenetic changes correlating with the induction of the Cc MADS 19 floral repressor, which prevents the activation of the floral promoter Ci FT 2 even in the presence of the floral inductive signals. By contrast, newly emerging shoots display an opposite epigenetic scenario associated with Cc MADS 19 repression, thereby allowing the activation of Ci FT 2 the following cold season.