Comparative Transcript Profiling Suggests Distinct Flowering Response of Early- and Late-Flowering Phenotypes in Forage

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Comparative Transcript Profiling Suggests Distinct Flowering Response of Early‑ and Late‑Flowering Phenotypes in Forage Grass Dactylis glomerata L Guangyan Feng1 · Xiaoheng Xu1 · Lei Xu2 · Zhongfu Yang1 · Gang Nie1 · Xiao Ma1 · Linkai Huang1 · Xinquan Zhang1  Received: 14 April 2020 / Accepted: 4 November 2020 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020

Abstract Orchardgrass (Dactylis glomerata L.) is an economically important perennial forage grass with a high biomass, abundant carbohydrates, shade tolerance, and broad adaptability. The time of flowering is a crucial agronomic trait that is strongly relevant to the quality and yield of orchardgrass. However, there has been little information provided about the genes expressed during the critical flower development stages. In this study, we performed a comparative transcriptome analysis at different stages in which we compared the early- and late-flowering phenotypes of orchardgrass to identify the regulators and pathways that are involved in timing of flowering. Based on our results, 2561 and 3885 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified between the late- and early-flowering phenotypes of orchardgrass in vernalization stage (VE) and before heading (BH) stages, respectively. Gene ontology analysis indicated that the DEGs in VE stage were primarily related to plant hormones, development processes, and environmental stimulation in response to vernalization induction. At the BH stage, DEGs were related to plant development processes and organ formation and differentiation. A large number of heat shock factors (HSFs) were detected in cooperation with plant hormone regulators in the heading (HT) stage. Ultimately, 50 flowering genes discovered were studied as DEGs between different phenotypes in flowering time, and 25 of those flowering DEGs were involved in the photoperiod pathway. These 50 DEGs revealed gene transcripts that corresponded to floweringassociated differences, and they provide novel insights into the molecular mechanisms that underlie regulation of flowering in early-flowering and late-flowering phenotypes of orchardgrass. Keywords  Photoperiod · Flowering time · Vernalization · Forage

Introduction Handling Editor: Scott Finlayson. Guangyan Feng and Xiaoheng Xu are contributed equally to this work. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (https​://doi.org/10.1007/s0034​4-020-10265​-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Linkai Huang [email protected] * Xinquan Zhang [email protected] 1



Department of Grassland Science, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, Sichuan, China



College of Pastoral Agriculture Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730020, Gansu, China

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Flowering is a crucial phase in the development of perennial grasses and most flowering plants, signaling the conversion from vegetative to reproductive growth (Simpson and Dean 2002). The applicable flowering time is necessary for adaptation of p