I am working with Eucalyptus plants overexpressing the gene FLOWERING LOCUS T. In addition to the expected phenotype changes (early flowering, reduced apical dominance) the flowering trees also have very dark foliage (much darker than controls). Has anyone observed a similar phenotype in plants overexpressing FT or a similar gene? Thank you very much,
Amy Klocko
Maybe this will help?
Dodd, A. N., Salathia, N., Hall, A., Kévei, E., Tóth, R., Nagy, F., ... & Webb, A. A. (2005). Plant circadian clocks increase photosynthesis, growth, survival, and competitive advantage. Science, 309(5734), 630-633.
Flowering Locus T is more related to signalling concepts for flowering. It is predicted that, FT mRNA moves from leaves to Apex to induce the flowering. However, relating the flowering related gene to chlorophyll content increase has least information available. FT is believed to be the present day "Florigen"
Hi Vimarsh,
There does seem to be general agreement in the literature that FT is indeed florigen. I am seeking a link between FT and chlorophyll levels and it seems to be elusive. So far, while there are several publications on the impact of FT on flowering and vegetative phenotypes such as plant form, I have yet to find a report which includes data on leaf coloration in FT-induced early flowering.
Amy
Flowering is an indication of maturity. You can check these papers, you will find some correlation studies that may be relevant.
1. Jalink, H., van der Schoor, R., Frandas, A., van Pijlen, J. G., & Bino, R. J. (1998). Chlorophyll fluorescence of Brassica oleracea seeds as a non-destructive marker for seed maturity and seed performance. Seed Science Research, 8(04), 437-443.
2.. Ward, K., Scarth, R., McVetty, P. B. E., & Daun, J. (1992). Effects of genotype and environment on seed chlorophyll degradation during ripening in four cultivars of oilseed rape (Brassica napus). Canadian Journal of Plant Science, 72(3), 643-649.
Dear Amy,
In the world of statistics, a change can be associated with changes in any other. Your thoughts are good and hope the relevant literature comes up in few years time. However, the concept will drag back the real role associated with FT. The quantified levels of mRNA or Protein is what determines the signal strength for induction to reproductive phase. There may be some association with vegetative processes such as photosynthesis and related pathways as linked to your question. But if your concept is proven, the concept of florigen associated with flowering may come down crashing.
Hi Amy,
1. When you did transformation, did you also include an 'empty' vector transformation for a control? Do the leaves of the majority of your transgenic plants show 'darker' color?
2. Have you measured the chlorophyll content from the leaves of the transgenic plants and non-transgenic (or empty vector-transformed) plants and found that the darker leaves have higher chlorophyll content?
3. Probably you have already read this 2015 paper (see attachment). The genes involved in flowering regulation are very complicated. In the paper it mentions: "The inhibition of flowering caused by FLC and SVP is, at least in part, due to repression of the floral integrator genes FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) and SUPPRESSOR OF OVEREXPRESSION OF CONSTANS1 (SOC1)." It also mentioned "However, mutations in SVP do increase GA levels leading to changes in chlorophyll accumulation in leaves and to leaf petiole elongation." So, they may have some kind of 'link (relationship)" among SVP, FLC and FT. Can the overexpression of FT in your transgenic plants has the same effect as that caused by a mutated 'svp', leading to the accumulation of chlorophyll?? If you find out, please do let us know.
Best on your research,
Hi Yuan-Yeu Yau,
Thank you very much for your response! To answer your questions, we included a non-transformed control but not an empty vector control. We only observed the darker leaf color on trees with the early-flowering phenotype. Not all of our confirmed transgenic events flowered, those non-flowering (but FT-transgenic) trees had normal leaf coloration.
We did measure the chlorophyll content of our flowering, non-flowering (but TG), and control trees. The non-flowering and control trees had similar levels of total chlorophyll while the flowering trees had significantly more chlorophyll than controls.
Thank you for sending the paper, I actually had not read that one and will do so shortly.
Amy
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