INVESTIGADORES
GONZALEZ SCHAIN Nahuel Damian
artículos
Título:
Potato CONSTANS is involved in photoperiodic tuberization in a graft-transmissible manner
Autor/es:
GONZÁLEZ SCHAIN ND; DÍAZ-MENDOZA M; ZURCZAK M; SUÁREZ-LÓPEZ P
Revista:
PLANT JOURNAL
Editorial:
WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC
Referencias:
Lugar: Londres; Año: 2012 vol. 70 p. 678 - 690
ISSN:
0960-7412
Resumen:
CONSTANS (CO) is involved in the photoperiodic control of plant
developmental processes, including flowering in several species and
seasonal growth cessation and bud set in trees. It has been proposed
that CO could also affect the day-length regulation of tuber induction
in Solanum tuberosum (potato), a plant of great agricultural relevance.
To address this question, we examined the role of CO in potato. A potato
CO-like gene, StCO, was identified and found to be highly similar to a
previously reported potato gene of unknown function. Potato plants
overexpressing StCO tuberized later than wild-type plants under a weakly
inductive photoperiod. StCO silencing promoted tuberization under both
repressive and weakly inductive photoperiods, but did not have any
effect under strongly inductive short days, demonstrating that StCO
represses tuberization in a photoperiod-dependent manner. The effect of
StCO on tuber induction was transmitted through grafts. In addition,
StCO affected the mRNA levels of StBEL5 - a tuberization promoter, the
mRNA of which moves long distances in potato plants - and StFT/StSP6A, a
protein highly similar to FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT), which is a key
component of systemic flowering signals in other species. We also found
that StFT/StSP6A transcript levels correlate with the induction of tuber
formation in wild-type plants. These results show that StCO plays an
important role in photoperiodic tuberization and, together with the
recent demonstration that StFT/StSP6A promotes tuberization, indicate
that the CO/FT module participates in controlling this process.
Moreover, they support the notion that StCO is involved in the
expression of long-distance regulatory signals in potato, as CO does in
other species.