Variation in the flowering time orthologs BrFLC and BrSOC1 in a natural population of Brassica rapa.

ABSTRACT: Understanding the genetic basis of natural phenotypic variation is of great importance, particularly since selection can act on this variation to cause evolution. We examined expression and allelic variation in candidate flowering time loci in Brassica rapa plants derived from a natural population and showing a broad range in the timing of first flowering. The loci of interest were orthologs of the Arabidopsis genes FLC and SOC1 (BrFLC and BrSOC1, respectively), which in Arabidopsis play a central role in the flowering time regulatory network, with FLC repressing and SOC1 promoting flowering. In B. rapa, there are four copies of FLC and three of SOC1. Plants were grown in controlled conditions in the lab. Comparisons were made between plants that flowered the earliest and latest, with the

SUBMITTER: Franks SJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4671188 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature