Dormancy-Associated MADS-Box (DAM) Genes Influence Chilling Requirement of Sweet Cherries and Co-Regulate Flower Development with SOC1 Gene

Abstract

Floral bud dormancy release of fruit tree species is greatly influenced by climate change. The lack of chilling accumulation often results in the occurrence of abnormal flower and low yields of sweet cherries (Prunus avium L.) in warm regions. To investigate the regulation of dormancy in sweet cherries, six DAM genes with homology to peach DAM, designated PavDAM1-6, have been identified and characterized. Phylogenetic analysis indicate that these genes are similar to DAMs in peach, apple and pear. The expression patterns of the PavDAMs in the low-chill cultivar ‘Royal Lee’ were different from that in the high-chill cultivar ‘Hongdeng’. ‘Royal Lee’ exhibits lower transcriptional level of PavDAM1 compared to ‘Hongdeng’, especially at the stage of chilling accumulation, and transcriptional levels of PavDAM4/5 were high in both cultivars during the endodormancy. Ectopic expression of PavDAM1 and PavDAM5 in Arabidopsis resulted in plants with abnormal flower and seed development, especially the PavDAM5. Higher transcriptional levels of SOC1 were observed in transgenic PavDAM1/5 lines, and ectopic expression of PavSOC1 had the similar floral phenotype. Further, protein interaction analysis demonstrated that PavDAM1/5 could interact with PavSOC1 in vivo and in vitro, which will help clarify the molecular mechanism of the flower development in sweet cherry or other fruit trees.

The genome of low-chill Chinese plum ‘Sanyueli’ (Prunus salicinaLindl.) provides insights into the regulation of the chilling requirement of flower buds

“…Recently, similar interactions between PavDAM1/5 and the dormany-associated SUPPRESSOR OF OVEREXPRESSION OF CO1 PavSOC1 were reported by Wang, et al 118 in sweet cherry. The authors suggested these interactions between DAMs and SOCs could play a role in bud dormancy regulantion.…”

“…DAM genes have been reported to be the major regulatory factors involved in the control of dormancy induction and release in flower bud of relative species 61,118,119 . Blast analyses against the genome of 'Sanyueli' plum enabled us to identify six PsDAM genes, including PsDAM1 (PsSY0028611), PsDAM2…”

Comparative transcriptome analysis provides insight into regulation pathways and temporal and spatial expression characteristics of grapevine (Vitis vinifera) dormant buds in different nodes

“…A large number of coordinating key genes that regulate signaling pathways were identified. For example, DOR-MANCY ASSOCIATED MADS-BOX (DAM) and the flowering genes FLOWERING TIME (FT), CENTRORA-DIALIS 1 (CENL1), and SOC1 (SUPPRESSOR OF OVER-EXPRESSION OF CO1) have been suggested to regulate endodormancy [29][30][31][32][33]. During both the induction and release of endodormancy, the DAMs expression profile indicated the possible existence of dose-dependent inhibitors of bud burst [14,34].…”

A dynamic snapshot of bud dormancy in peach

“…Moreover, yeast two hybrid analysis confirmed the presence of three common protein interactors between PpeDAM6 and SVP: FUL (Balanza et al, 2014), SEP2 (Trigg et al, 2017) and SOC1 (de Folter et al, 2005). In addition, SOC1-like have been also shown to interact with DAM6 from apricot (Kitamura et al, 2016) and sweet cherry (Wang et al, 2020a), similarly to the interaction observed between SVP-like and SOC1-like in kiwifruit (Wu et al, 2017). SOC1…”

“…27), resembling 35S::AtSVP plants in the literature, with the exception of the late flowering phenotype. Likewise, the overexpression in Arabidopsis of PavDAM1-6 and SVP-like genes, which are involved in the dormancy process in Prunus avium and Actinidae deliciosa respectively, resulted in similar defects in the flower phenotypes (Wang et al, 2020a;Wu et al, 2012).…”