Genetic inhibition of flowering differs between juvenile and adult Citrus trees.

ABSTRACT:

Background and aims

In woody species, the juvenile period maintains the axillary meristems in a vegetative stage, unable to flower, for several years. However, in adult trees, some 1-year-old meristems flower whereas others remain vegetative to ensure a polycarpic growth habit. Both types of trees, therefore, have non-flowering meristems, and we hypothesize that the molecular mechanism regulating flower inhibition in juvenile trees is different from that in adult trees.

Methods

In adult Citrus trees, the main endogenous factor inhibiting flower induction is the growing fruit. Thus, we studied the expression of the main flowering time, identity and patterning genes of trees with heavy fruit load (not-flowering adult trees) compared to that of 6-month-old trees (not-flowering

SUBMITTER: Munoz-Fambuena N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6377094 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature