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Delayed flowering time in Arabidopsis and Brassica rapa by the overexpression of FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC) homologs isolated from Chinese cabbage (Brassica rapa L. ssp. pekinensis)

  • Genetic Transformation and Hybridization
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Abstract

Chinese cabbage plants remain in the vegetative growth phase until they have experienced prolonged exposure to cold temperature, known as vernalization. This inhibition of flowering is caused by the high levels of FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC) expression. To increase the product value of Chinese cabbage by inhibiting the floral transition, three genes (BrFLC1, BrFLC2, and BrFLC3) homologous to the AtFLC gene, which encodes a floral repressor, were isolated from the Chinese cabbage ‘Chiifu’. These genes showed high similarity to AtFLC, although the putative BrFLC1 protein contained ten more residues than AtFLC. The BrFLC genes were expressed ubiquitously, except that BrFLC3 was not expressed in roots. BrFLC1 and BrFLC2 showed stronger expression than BrFLC3 in unvernalized and vernalized Chinese cabbage. The expression levels of the three BrFLC genes were lower in an early-flowering Chinese cabbage, suggesting that the BrFLC transcript level was associated with flowering time. Constitutive expression of the BrFLC genes in Arabidopsis significantly delayed flowering, which was also observed in transgenic Chinese cabbage overexpressing BrFLC3. These results suggest that the BrFLC genes act similarly to AtFLC. Our results provide a technique for controlling flowering time in Chinese cabbage and other crops to produce high yields of vegetative tissues.

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Abbreviations

At:

Arabidopsis thaliana

BA:

6-Benzylaminopurine

Bn:

Brassica napus

Br:

Brassica rapa L. ssp. pekinensis

FLC:

FLOWERING LOCUS C

NAA:

α-Naphthaleneacetic acid

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by Technology Development Program for Agriculture and Forestry, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Republic of Korea and a grant (20050401034783) from BioGreen 21 Program, Rural Development Administration, Republic of Korea. We thank Dongbu Hannong Chem. Co. for providing Chinese cabbage inbred lines with different flowering times. We also thank Min Jung Lee for working on Arabidopsis transformation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute of Agricultural Biotechnology, RDA, Suwon, 441-707, Korea

    Soo-Yun Kim, Beom-Seok Park, Soo-Jin Kwon, Jungsun Kim, Myung-Ho Lim, Dool Yi Kim, Seok-Chul Suh, Yong-Moon Jin & Yeon-Hee Lee

  2. Graduate School of Biotechnology, Kyung Hee University, Yongin-Si, 447-501, Korea

    Soo-Yun Kim & Young-Doo Park

  3. School of Life Science and Biotechnology, Korea University, Seoul, 136-701, Korea

    Ji Hoon Ahn

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  1. Soo-Yun Kim
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  2. Beom-Seok Park
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  4. Jungsun Kim
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yeon-Hee Lee.

Additional information

Communicated by I. S. Chung

Soo-Yun Kim and Beom-Seok Park have equally contributed to this work.

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Kim, SY., Park, BS., Kwon, SJ. et al. Delayed flowering time in Arabidopsis and Brassica rapa by the overexpression of FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC) homologs isolated from Chinese cabbage (Brassica rapa L. ssp. pekinensis). Plant Cell Rep 26, 327–336 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-006-0243-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-006-0243-1

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