Transcriptome profiles reveal gene regulation of ginger flowering induced by photoperiod and light quality

• Published in: Botanical studies Vol. 64; no. 1; p. 12
• Main Authors: Deng, Qinyu, Zhang, Yangtao, Liu, Kang, Zheng, Guo, Gao, Longyan, Li, Zhexin, Huang, Mengjun, Jiang, Yusong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Singapore Springer Nature Singapore 27.05.2023; Springer Nature B.V; SpringerOpen
• Subjects: Biomedical and Life Sciences; Breeding; Buds; Differentiation; Ecology; Flowering; Flowering mechanism; Flowers; Gene expression; Gene regulation; Genes; Ginger; Industrial development; Life Sciences; Light quality; Long photoperiod; Metabolic pathways; Molecular Biology; Original; Original Article; Photoperiodicity; Plant Genetics and Genomics; Plant Sciences; Red light treatment; Reliability analysis; Ribonucleic acid; RNA; Transcription factors; Transcriptome sequencing; Transcriptomes; Zingiber officinale; Transcriptome sequencing; Ginger; Red light treatment; Flowering mechanism; Long photoperiod
• ISSN: 1817-406X; 1999-3110; 1999-3110
• DOI: 10.1186/s40529-023-00388-7

Background Under natural conditions, ginger ( Zingiber officinale Rosc.) rarely blossom and has seed, which limits new variety breeding of ginger and industry development. In this study, the effects of different photoperiods and light quality on flowering induction in ginger were performed, followed by gene expression analysis of flower buds differentiation under induced treatment using RNA-seq technology. Results First, both red light and long light condition (18 h light/6 h dark) could effectively induce differentiation of flower buds in ginger. Second, a total of 3395 differentially expressed genes were identified from several different comparisons, among which nine genes, including CDF1 , COP1 , GHD7 , RAV2-like , CO , FT , SOC1 , AP1 and LFY, were identified to be associated with flowering in induced flower buds and natural leaf buds. Aside from four down-regulated genes ( CDF1 , COP1 , GHD7 and RAV2-like ), other five genes were all up-regulated expression. These differentially expressed genes were mainly classified into 2604 GO categories, which were further enriched into 120 KEGG metabolic pathways. Third, expression change of flowering-related genes in ginger indicated that the induction may negatively regulated expression of CDF1 , COP1 , GHD7 and RAV2-like , and subsequently positively regulated expression of CO , FT , SOC1 , LFY and AP1 , which finally led to ginger flowering. In addition, the RNA-seq results were verified by qRT-PCR analysis of 18 randomly selected genes, which further demonstrated the reliability of transcriptome analysis. Conclusion This study revealed the ginger flowering mechanism induced by light treatment and provided abundant gene information, which contribute to the development of hybrid breeding of ginger.