TY - JOUR
T1 - Analysis of pea mutants reveals the conserved role of FRUITFULL controlling the end of flowering and its potential to boost yield
AU - Martínez-Fernández, Irene
AU - Fourquin, Chloe
AU - Lindsay, Donna
AU - Berbel, Ana
AU - Balanzà, Vicente
AU - Huang, Shaoming
AU - Dalmais, Marion
AU - LeSignor, Christine
AU - Bendahmane, Abdelhafid
AU - Warkentin, Thomas D.
AU - Madueño, Francisco
AU - Ferrándiz, Cristina
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2024 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. This article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND).
PY - 2024/4/9
Y1 - 2024/4/9
N2 - Monocarpic plants have a single reproductive phase in their life. Therefore, flower and fruit production are restricted to the length of this period. This reproductive strategy involves the regulation of flowering cessation by a coordinated arrest of the growth of the inflorescence meristems, optimizing resource allocation to ensure seed filling. Flowering cessation appears to be a regulated phenomenon in all monocarpic plants. Early studies in several species identified seed production as a major factor triggering inflorescence proliferative arrest. Recently, genetic factors controlling inflorescence arrest, in parallel to the putative signals elicited by seed production, have started to be uncovered in Arabidopsis, with the MADS-box gene FRUITFULL (FUL) playing a central role in the process. However, whether the genetic network regulating arrest is also at play in other species is completely unknown. Here, we show that this role of FUL is not restricted to Arabidopsis but is conserved in another monocarpic species with a different inflorescence structure, field pea, strongly suggesting that the network controlling the end of flowering is common to other plants. Moreover, field trials with lines carrying mutations in pea FUL genes show that they could be used to boost crop yield.
AB - Monocarpic plants have a single reproductive phase in their life. Therefore, flower and fruit production are restricted to the length of this period. This reproductive strategy involves the regulation of flowering cessation by a coordinated arrest of the growth of the inflorescence meristems, optimizing resource allocation to ensure seed filling. Flowering cessation appears to be a regulated phenomenon in all monocarpic plants. Early studies in several species identified seed production as a major factor triggering inflorescence proliferative arrest. Recently, genetic factors controlling inflorescence arrest, in parallel to the putative signals elicited by seed production, have started to be uncovered in Arabidopsis, with the MADS-box gene FRUITFULL (FUL) playing a central role in the process. However, whether the genetic network regulating arrest is also at play in other species is completely unknown. Here, we show that this role of FUL is not restricted to Arabidopsis but is conserved in another monocarpic species with a different inflorescence structure, field pea, strongly suggesting that the network controlling the end of flowering is common to other plants. Moreover, field trials with lines carrying mutations in pea FUL genes show that they could be used to boost crop yield.
KW - end of flowering
KW - FRUITFULL
KW - pea
KW - proliferative arrest
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85189786363&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1073/pnas.2321975121
DO - 10.1073/pnas.2321975121
M3 - Article
C2 - 38557190
AN - SCOPUS:85189786363
SN - 0027-8424
VL - 121
JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
IS - 15
M1 - e2321975121
ER -