Genetic Basis of Variation of Flowering Time in Tibetan Arabidopsis thaliana

doi:10.11983/CBB23140

Abstract

Abstract: Flowering time is a critical point in the life history of angiosperm plants. Arabidopsis thaliana of the Brassicaceae is widely distributed around the world, and natural populations of this species have been found at 4,000 m altitude in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The unique plateau climate has shaped their life history phenotypes, including moderately early in flowering time. In this study, we constructed F₂ mapping population and utilized whole-genome sequencing-based QTL-seq analysis to locate the major effect gene FLC in Lhasa population of A. thaliana, and identified a deletion of 2,307 bp within the first intron of FLC, which is a haplotype unique to Tibetan A. thaliana. Lhasa population flc^-/- mutant was constructed by CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technique. The mutant exhibited significantly earlier flowering time. The above findings suggest that the variation in the first intron of FLC in Tibetan A. thaliana could be one of the main reasons for the early flowering phenotype, although it does not lose its function completely. This variation may facilitate the adaptation of Tibetan A. thaliana to the unique climatic environment of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

Key words: Tibetan Arabidopsis thaliana, flowering time, Flowering Locus C, adaptive evolution

Jixuan Yang, Xuefei Wang, Hongya Gu. Genetic Basis of Variation of Flowering Time in Tibetan Arabidopsis thaliana[J]. Chinese Bulletin of Botany, 2024, 59(3): 0-0.

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URL: https://www.chinbullbotany.com/EN/10.11983/CBB23140

https://www.chinbullbotany.com/EN/Y2024/V59/I3/0

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