Morphological Characterization and Gene Expression Profiling during Bud Development in a Tropical Perennial, Litchi chinensis Sonn.

ABSTRACT: Tropical evergreen perennials undergo recurrent flush growth, and their terminal buds alternate between growth and dormancy. In sharp contrast to the intensive studies on bud development in temperate deciduous trees, there is little information about bud development regulation in tropical trees. In this study, litchi (Litchi chinensis Sonn.) was used as a model tropical perennial for morphological characterization and transcriptomic analysis of bud development. Litchi buds are naked with apical meristem embraced by rudimentary leaves, which are brown at dormant stage (Stage I). They swell and turn greenish as buds break (Stage II), and as growth accelerates, the rudimentary leaves elongate and open exposing the inner leaf primodia. With the outgrowth of the needle-like leaflets, bud

SUBMITTER: Zhang H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5080376 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature