The association of hormone signalling genes, transcription and changes in shoot anatomy during moso bamboo growth

Abstract

SummaryMoso bamboo is a large, woody bamboo with the highest ecological, economic and cultural value of all the bamboo types and accounts for up to 70% of the total area of bamboo grown. However, the spatiotemporal variation role of moso bamboo shoot during growth period is still unclear. We found that the bamboo shoot growth can be divided into three distinct periods, including winter growth, early growth and late growth based on gene expression and anatomy. In the early growth period, lateral buds germinated from the top of the bamboo joint in the shoot tip. Intercalary meristems grew vigorously during the winter growth period and early growth period, but in the late growth period, mitosis in the intercalary meristems decreased. The expression of cell cycle‐associated genes and the quantity of differentially expressed genes were higher in early growth than those in late growth, appearing to be influenced by hormonal concentrations. Gene expression analysis indicates that hormone signalling genes play key roles in shoot growth, while auxin signalling genes play a central role. In situ hybridization analyses illustrate how auxin signalling genes regulate apical dominance, meristem maintenance and lateral bud development. Our study provides a vivid picture of the dynamic changes in anatomy and gene expression during shoot growth in moso bamboo, and how hormone signalling‐associated genes participate in moso bamboo shoot growth.

Genome-wide analysis of GATA factors in moso bamboo (Phyllostachys edulis) unveils that PeGATAs regulate shoot rapid-growth and rhizome development

“…As the rapid-growth of bamboo shoots is largely determined by phytohormone and nutrients [2, 27], and we have demonstrated that PeGATAs are differentially expressed in rhizome tissues and under GA treatment (Fig. 7a, b), we hypothesized that PeGATAs may also be involved in fast-growing bamboo shoots.…”

“…It has been reported that several gene families are involved in flower development and abiotic stress [30–32, 41], the rapid-growth associated transcription factors remain elusive. The genome sequences of moso bamboo[33] and transcriptome studies [2, 27, 28, 40] provide important platforms for the identification of rapid-growth shoot and rhizome development associated gene families. The rapid-growth related genes could provide useful information for genetic manipulation of plant height in future.…”

“…Identification of many rapid-growth related PeGATAs indicates that PeGATAs are involved in regulating the bamboo shoot. The rapid-growth of bamboo shoot is tightly controlled by phytohormone [27]. Current studies reveals that ABA is the only negative regulator of fast-growing shoots, while BR, auxin, GA and cytokinin antagonize with ABA to promote rapid-growth of bamboo shoots [27].…”

“…Recently, large-scale transcriptome analysis has shown that light and phytohormones may play important roles in the rapid-growth of bamboo [27–29]. In addition, a large number of transcription factor families are involved in the abiotic stress response and flower development have been studied in moso bamboo [30–32].…”

Morphological dissection and cellular and transcriptome characterizations of bamboo pith cavity formation reveal a pivotal role of genes related to programmed cell death

“…For a long time, the molecular research of bamboo mainly follows the studies of model plants (Wei et al, 2013). Recently, with the advancement of next generation sequencing technologies, several studies have reported to explore bamboo transcriptome profiles in several important biological processes such as fast growth, flowering and primary thickening growth (Gao et al, 2014;He et al, 2013;Li et al, 2018;Liu et al, 2012;Peng et al, 2013;Shih et al, 2014;Wei et al, 2017Wei et al, , 2018Zhang et al, 2012). Meanwhile, the genetic transformation system of bamboo has been successfully established (Qiao et al, 2014;Ye et al, 2017), and several groups have made progress in increasing the callus regeneration efficiency, which is important for establishing an efficient transgenic system of bamboo (Wei et al, 2015).…”