Petunia hybrida is a popular bedding plant that has a long history as a genetic model system. We report the whole-genome sequencing and assembly of inbred derivatives of its two wild parents, P. axillaris N and P. inflata S6. The assemblies include 91.3% and 90.2% coverage of their diploid genomes (1.4 Gb; 2n = 14) containing 32,928 and 36,697 protein-coding genes, respectively. The genomes reveal that the Petunia lineage has experienced at least two rounds of hexaploidization: the older gamma event, which is shared with most Eudicots, and a more recent Solanaceae event that is shared with tomato and other solanaceous species. Transcription factors involved in the shift from bee to moth pollination reside in particularly dynamic regions of the genome, which may have been key to the remarkable diversity of floral colour patterns and pollination systems. The high-quality genome sequences will enhance the value of Petunia as a model system for research on unique biological phenomena such as small RNAs, symbiosis, self-incompatibility and circadian rhythms.

Strawberry (Fragaria ×ananassa) cultivars vary greatly in the expression of remontancy, or repeat flowering. To more clearly define the roles of temperature and daylength in flowering control of strawberry, the non-remontant cultivar Honeoye, and two remontant genotypes classified as day-neutral, ‘Tribute’ and an elite clone of Fragaria virginiana ssp. virginiana, RH 30, were grown at 14, 17, 20, 23, 26, or 29 °C, under a short (9 h) or long (16 h) photoperiod. Differential flowering responses of genotypes across temperature and photoperiod treatments resulted from variation in 1) the photoperiod-insensitive permissive temperature range for flowering, 2) photoperiodic requirement if temperature exceeded the photoperiod-insensitive range, and 3) the rate of development of axillary meristems. The photoperiod-insensitive temperature range varied from 14 up to 20 °C for ‘Honeoye’, 23 °C for RH 30, and 26 °C for ‘Tribute’. When temperature exceeded the photoperiod-insensitive range, ‘Honeoye’ and RH 30 required short days for flowering, while ‘Tribute’ required long days. Flowering of ‘Honeoye’ lagged behind ‘Tribute’ and RH 30 by about 84 days in treatments where flowering occurred. These results indicate that temperature and floral initiation/development rate strongly influence the expression of remontancy, and that screening genotypes for day neutrality alone is unlikely to result in the development of robustly remontant cultivars.

BackgroundPetunia (Petunia × hybrida), derived from a hybrid between P. axillaris and P. integrifolia, is one of the most economically important bedding plant crops and Petunia spp. serve as model systems for investigating the mechanisms underlying diverse mating systems and pollination syndromes. In addition, we have previously described genetic variation and quantitative trait loci (QTL) related to petunia development rate and morphology, which represent important breeding targets for the floriculture industry to improve crop production and performance. Despite the importance of petunia as a crop, the floriculture industry has been slow to adopt marker assisted selection to facilitate breeding strategies and there remains a limited availability of sequences and molecular markers from the genus compared to other economically important members of the Solanaceae family such as tomato, potato and pepper.ResultsHere we report the de novo assembly, annotation and characterization of transcriptomes from P. axillaris, P. exserta and P. integrifolia. Each transcriptome assembly was derived from five tissue libraries (callus, 3-week old seedlings, shoot apices, flowers of mixed developmental stages, and trichomes). A total of 74,573, 54,913, and 104,739 assembled transcripts were recovered from P. axillaris, P. exserta and P. integrifolia, respectively and following removal of multiple isoforms, 32,994 P. axillaris, 30,225 P. exserta, and 33,540 P. integrifolia high quality representative transcripts were extracted for annotation and expression analysis. The transcriptome data was mined for single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) and simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers, yielding 89,007 high quality SNPs and 2949 SSRs, respectively. 15,701 SNPs were computationally converted into user-friendly cleaved amplified polymorphic sequence (CAPS) markers and a subset of SNP and CAPS markers were experimentally verified. CAPS markers developed from plastochron-related homologous transcripts from P. axillaris were mapped in an interspecific Petunia population and evaluated for co-localization with QTL for development rate.ConclusionsThe high quality of the three Petunia spp. transcriptomes coupled with the utility of the SNP data will serve as a resource for further exploration of genetic diversity within the genus and will facilitate efforts to develop genetic and physical maps to aid the identification of QTL associated with traits of interest.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12864-015-1931-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

A system to study the basis of high temperature-induced floral bud abortion using naturally occurring variation for heat-tolerance of floral development among Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh. wild-collected accessions is described. High temperature-induced floral bud abortion was dependent on both temperature and duration of exposure. Exposing the inflorescence alone to high temperature was sufficient to induce floral bud abortion, and Col-0 and No-0 photosynthetic rates were similar during high temperature exposure and recovery, indicating that high temperature induced floral abortion is not simply due to reductions in carbon assimilation under high temperatures. Determining that exposing floral buds alone to high temperature is sufficient to induce abortion and identifying the stages of floral development sensitive to high temperature-induced abortion will aid in identifying the developmental events subject to disruption under high temperatures.

Increasing the photosynthetic daily light integral (DLI) during the seedling stage promotes seedling growth and flowering in many bedding plants. Our objective was to determine the impact of increased DLI for different periods during the seedling stage on young plant quality and subsequent growth and development. Seeds of petunia (Petunia ×hybrida Vilm.-Andr. ‘Madness Red’) and pansy (Viola ×wittrockiana Gams. ‘Delta Premium Yellow’) were sown into 288-cell plug trays and placed under a 16-h photoperiod provided by sunlight plus 90 μmol·m−2·s−1 [supplemental lighting (SL)] or 3 μmol·m−2·s−1 [photoperiodic lighting (PL)] from high-pressure sodium lamps when the ambient greenhouse photosynthetic photon flux was less than 400 μmol·m−2·s−1 from 0600 to 2200 hr. Plants were grown at 20 °C under PL or SL for the entire seedling stage or were exposed to SL for one-third or two-thirds of the seedling stage. Seedlings were then transplanted into 10-cm pots and grown until flowering with SL at 20 °C. Shoot dry mass of transplants increased linearly with increasing DLI provided to seedlings in petunia (y = −4.75 + 1.86x, R2 = 0.76) and pansy (y = −3.94 + 3.47x, R2 = 0.78) in which y = dry mass (g) and x = DLI (mol·m−2·d−1). SL during the last two-thirds or the entire plug stage increased shoot dry mass and the number of leaves in both species compared with SL during the earlier stage or PL. SL during the last two-thirds or the entire plug stage accelerated flowering, but plants had a lower shoot dry mass and flower bud number at first flowering compared with that in SL during the first third or two-thirds or that in PL. Therefore, SL generally had greater effects on transplant quality and subsequent flowering when provided later in the plug stage than if provided earlier in production.

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The leaf unfolding rate (i.e., development rate) and the number of nodes forming prior to floral initiation are 2 factors determining production times for floriculture crops. Wild relative species of the cultivated petunia (Petunia x hybrida Vilm.) that exhibited faster development rates than modern cultivars and may therefore be useful genetic sources to develop cultivars with decreased production time were identified. Three interspecific F(2) families, Petunia exserta Stehmann x P. axillaris (Lam.) Britton et al., P. x hybrida 'Mitchell' x P. axillaris, and P. axillaris x P. integrifolia (Hook.) Schinz & Thell. all exhibited transgressive segregation for development rate and node number below the first flower. Development rate and time to flower segregated independently in all families. Leaf number below the first flower was positively correlated with leaf unfolding rate in all families except P. axillaris x P. integrifolia. Time to flower was positively correlated with flower bud number in the P. x hybrida 'Mitchell' x P. axillaris and P. axillaris x P. integrifolia families only. Based on these results, wild Petunia germplasm should be useful for developing petunia cultivars with reduced crop production times, but some negative effects on crop quality parameters may need to be overcome.

Flowering of many herbaceous ornamentals is reduced or eliminated under high temperatures. On warm, sunny days, greenhouse growers often cover crops with light-reducing screening materials to reduce air and plant temperature. However, low irradiance can also reduce flowering on many species. To examine the impacts of temperature and irradiance on herbaceous ornamental flowering and to select a model to study high temperature-reduced flowering, Antirrhinum majus L. (snapdragon) `Rocket Rose', Calendula officinalis L. (calendula) `Calypso Orange', Impatiens wallerana Hook.f. (impatiens) `Super Elfin White', Mimulus ×hybridus Hort. ex Siebert & Voss (mimulus) `Mystic Yellow', and Torenia fournieri Linden ex E. Fourn (torenia) `Clown Burgundy' were grown at constant 32 ± 1 °C or 20 ± 1.5 °C under a 16-hour photoperiod with daily light integrals (DLI) of 10.5, 17.5, or 21.8 mol·m-2·d-1. Flower bud number per plant (all flower buds ≥1 mm in length when the first flower opened) of all species was lower at 32 than 20 °C. Reduction in flower bud number per plant at 32 compared to 20 °C varied from 30% (impatiens) to 95% (torenia) under a DLI of 10.5 mol·m-2·d-1. Flower diameter of all species except snapdragon was less at 32 than 20 °C. Decreasing DLI from 21.8 to 10.5 mol·m-2·d-1 decreased flower diameter of all species except snapdragon. Calendula, impatiens, and torenia leaf number below the first flower was greater at 32 than 20 °C, regardless of DLI. Increasing DLI from 10.5 to 17.5 mol·m-2·d-1 increased shoot dry mass gain rate of all species, regardless of temperature. Further increasing DLI from 17.5 to 21.8 mol·m-2·d-1 at 20 °C increased shoot dry mass gain rate of all species except snapdragon and mimulus, indicating that these species may be light saturated below 21.8 mol·m-2·d-1. Under DLIs of 17.5 and 21.8 mol·m-2·d-1 shoot dry mass gain rate was lower at 32 than 20 °C for all species except torenia. Torenia shoot dry mass gain rate was 129 mg·d-1 at 20 °C compared to 252 mg·d-1 at 32 °C under a DLI of 17.5 mol·m-2·d-1. We suggest torenia may be a good model to study the basis for inhibition of flowering under high temperatures as flowering, but not dry mass gain, was reduced at 32 °C.