生物多样性 ›› 2021, Vol. 29 ›› Issue (6): 825-842.  DOI: 10.17520/biods.2020370

• 综述 • 上一篇    下一篇

植物开花时间的遗传调控通路研究进展

杨小凤1, 李小蒙2,*(), 廖万金1   

  1. 1.北京师范大学生命科学学院, 生物多样性与生态工程教育部重点实验室, 北京 100875
    2.北京师范大学, 生命科学与技术国家级实验教学示范中心, 北京 100875
  • 收稿日期:2020-09-21 接受日期:2020-11-30 出版日期:2021-06-20 发布日期:2021-02-01
  • 通讯作者: 李小蒙
  • 作者简介:* E-mail: xiaomengli@bnu.edu.cn
  • 基金资助:
    国家自然科学基金(31700326);国家自然科学基金(31770253)

Advances in the genetic regulating pathways of plant flowering time

Xiaofeng Yang1, Xiaomeng Li2,*(), Wanjin Liao1   

  1. 1 MOE Key Laboratory for Biodiversity Science and Ecological Engineering, College of Life Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875
    2 National Demonstration Center for Experimental Life Sciences and Biotechnology Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875
  • Received:2020-09-21 Accepted:2020-11-30 Online:2021-06-20 Published:2021-02-01
  • Contact: Xiaomeng Li

摘要:

开花时间对植物的繁殖成功至关重要。广泛分布的物种经常发生开花时间的分化, 从而能够更好地适应不同的环境条件。为了探索植物开花行为发生适应性分化的分子机制, 首先要明确调控开花行为的遗传通路。本文梳理了植物各类群调控开花时间的遗传通路, 以期为开花时间适应性分化的分子机制研究提供依据。 植物从营养生长向繁殖转变时, 其开花行为主要受到光照、温度、水分等外界环境因子和赤霉素等内在因素的影响。通过对模式植物拟南芥(Arabidopsis thaliana)和其他类群的研究, 总结出了调控植物开花时间的6条通路, 包括日照长度和光质影响开花的光依赖通路, 长时间冷暴露后促进植物开花的春化通路, 高温或低温环境影响开花的温度通路, 以及赤霉素通路、年龄通路和自主通路3条内部调节过程。植物开花时间调控的6条上游通路信号传递到下游的开花整合基因FT(FLOWERING LOCUS T)和SOC1(SUPPRESSOR OF OVEREXPRESSION OF CONSTANS 1), 整合基因将这些复杂的调节因子整合后进一步传递到下游花分生组织, 从而启动开花。此外, 非编码RNA、转座子对开花时间的调控也具有重要作用。部分遗传通路被证实在植物适应环境的过程中起到了重要作用。目前对植物开花调控的研究已经有一百多年历史, 理论相对成熟。然而, 仍然存在许多具有争议和未解决的问题, 如开花基因的表达方式、开花行为的特殊调控机制、开花时间变异的适应性意义等等, 需要更进一步的研究。

关键词: 开花基因, 开花时间, 适合度, 遗传调控, 遗传通路

Abstract

Aims: Flowering time is critical for plant reproductive success. Plant species, especially which are widely distributed, are observed to exhibit significant differentiation in flowering time to maximize their fitness. In order to explore the molecular mechanism of adaptive differentiation of flowering time in plants, it is essential to clarify the regulating pathways of flowering. This paper summarizes the genetic pathways that regulate flowering time in various groups of plants, which can provide important reference for molecular mechanism research of adaptive differentiation of flowering time.

Progresses: As a vital transition from vegetative growth to reproduction in plants, the flowering time has been reported to be regulated by both extrinsic and intrinsic factors. Based on researches of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana and other taxa, six pathways that regulate flowering time have been identified. The light-dependent pathway, vernalization pathway, and temperature pathway refer to the regulation of flowering time in response to day length or quality of light, a long period of cold exposure, and external high or low temperature, respectively. While the gibberellin pathway, the age pathway and the autonomic pathway are the endogenous pathways. Signals from the six upstream flowering regulation pathways are transmitted to the downstream flowering integratorsFT (FLOWERING LOCUS T) andSOC1(SUPPRESSOR OF OVEREXPRESSION OF CONSTANS 1), assembled by these two integrators, and transmitted to the downstream flowering meristem where flowering initiates. In addition, most recent studies have shown that non-coding RNA and transposable elements also play important roles in the regulation of flowering time.

Prospect: The researches on the regulation of plant flowering have studied more than a hundred years ago, forming many mature theories. However, there are still many controversial and unresolved problems, such as the expression ways of flowering genes, the special regulatory mechanism of flowering, and the adaptive significance of differentiated flowering time, which require further study.

Key words: flowering gene, flowering time, fitness, genetic regulation, genetic pathway