EARLY FLOWERING is a dominant gain‐of‐function allele of FANTASTIC FOUR 1/2c that promotes early flowering in tomato

Abstract

SummaryFlowering time, an important factor in plant adaptability and genetic improvement, is regulated by various genes in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum). In this study, we characterized a tomato mutant, EARLY FLOWERING (EF), that developed flowers much earlier than its parental control. EF is a dominant gain‐of‐function allele with a T‐DNA inserted 139 bp downstream of the stop codon of FANTASTIC FOUR 1/2c (FAF1/2c). The transcript of SlFAF1/2c was at elevated levels in the EF mutant. Overexpressing SlFAF1/2c in tomato plants phenocopied the early flowering trait of the EF mutant. Knocking out SlFAF1/2c in the EF mutant reverted the early flowering phenotype of the mutant to the normal flowering time of the wild‐type tomato plants. SlFAF1/2c promoted the floral transition by shortening the vegetative phase rather than by reducing the number of leaves produced before the emergence of the first inflorescence. The COP9 signalosome subunit 5B (CSN5B) was shown to interact with FAF1/2c, and knocking out CSN5B led to an early flowering phenotype in tomato. Interestingly, FAF1/2c was found to reduce the accumulation of the CSN5B protein by reducing its protein stability. These findings imply that FAF1/2c regulates flowering time in tomato by reducing the accumulation and stability of CSN5B, which influences the expression of SINGLE FLOWER TRUSS (SFT), JOINTLESS (J) and UNIFLORA (UF). Thus, a new allele of SlFAF1/2c was discovered and found to regulate flowering time in tomato.

A novel tomato interspecific (Solanum lycopersicum var. cerasiforme and Solanum pimpinellifolium) MAGIC population facilitates trait association and candidate gene discovery in untapped exotic germplasm

“…SNPs with default r 2 values greater than 0.5 were considered for haplotype block estimation. The R package geneHapR was used for haplotype statistics [ 99 ]. The genes underlying the haplotype blocks were retrieved from the Heinz 1706 SL4.0 tomato reference genome [ 78 ].…”

New Advances in the Study of Regulation of Tomato Flowering-Related Genes Using Biotechnological Approaches

“…It was shown that MBP21 is involved in the ethylene and auxin regulatory pathway of sepal development [58]. It is also noted that one of the FANTASTIC FOUR family members, FAF1/2c reduces the stability of the COP9 signalosome, thereby regulating the expression of SFT and J [59].…”