Isolation and Expression Profiling of a CONSTANS-Like Gene and Two FLOWERING LOCUS T-Like Genes from Spinacia oleracea L.

Abstract

Spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.) develops leaf rosettes under short-day conditions, and starts reproductive growth including bolting and flowering under long-day conditions. Japanese people prefer Oriental spinach that bolts easily with a shorter photoperiod than European spinach. This is one of the main reasons that Oriental spinach is difficult to grow year-round. In order to understand spinach flowering mechanisms and obtain knowledge for spinach breeding, we isolated one CONSTANS-like (COL) and two FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) homologs, which are key components of photoperiodic regulation of flowering time, from a Japanese cultivar. The expression of SoCOL1 showed diurnal rhythm with the highest expression at the end of the dark cycle. This diurnal rhythm is similar to the expression of BvCOL1 from sugar beet (Beta vulgaris), whose flower-promoting effect was observed when overexpressed in Arabidopsis. Phylogenetic analysis showed that SoCOL1 is the closest homolog of BvCOL1, suggesting that SoCOL1 is an ortholog of BvCOL1. SoFT1 and SoFT2 are closely related to BvFT1 and BvFT2, respectively. The expression of SoFT1 and SoFT2 were induced in advance of flower bud formation after changing the photoperiod, but the expression level of SoFT1 was much lower than SoFT2. Currently, we are speculating that SoFT2 is a flower-promoting factor of spinach, and that SoFT1 has a role in light signaling because the expression of SoFT1 showed a diurnal rhythm.