Genetic interactions in the control of flowering time and reproductive structure development in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum).
Different tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) mutants, affected in flowering time, reproductive structure or plant architecture, were crossed to produce double mutants in order to investigate gene interactions in flowering regulation in this autonomous species with a sympodial growth habit. The compound inflorescence: uniflora, uniflora: self pruning, uniflora: blind, and jointless: uniflora double mutants all produced solitary flowers like their uniflora parent, instead of inflorescences. All double mutants were late flowering. uniflora: blind and uniflora: self pruning had flowering times intermediate between those of their two parents. jointless: uniflora and compound inflorescence: uniflora flowered later than uniflora, the mutant with the most delayed flowering. All double mutants developed strong lateral shoots at node levels approximately corresponding to the level at which their parent cultivars initiated their first reproductive structure, which is a typical trait of uniflora. These results suggest that the UNIFLORA gene acts upstream of the other investigated genes in controlling flowering in tomato, and that floral transition of the primary shoot and floral transition of sympodial segments are regulated differently.
Quinet
Muriel
M
Unité de Biologie Végétale, Département de Biologie et Institut des Sciences de la Vie, Université catholique de Louvain, Croix du Sud 5, boîte 13, B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.
Dielen
Vincent
V
Batoko
Henri
H
Boutry
Marc
M
Havelange
Andrée
A
Kinet
Jean-Marie
JM