AUTHOR=Ma Limei , Yan Yuanyuan 

TITLE=GhSOC1s Evolve to Respond Differently to the Environmental Cues and Promote Flowering in Partially Independent Ways

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Plant Science

VOLUME=13

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-science/articles/10.3389/fpls.2022.882946

DOI=10.3389/fpls.2022.882946

ISSN=1664-462X

ABSTRACT=<p><italic>Gossypium hirsutum</italic> is most broadly cultivated in the world due to its broader adaptation to the environment and successful breeding of early maturity varieties. However, how cotton responds to environmental cues to adjust flowering time to achieve reproductive success is largely unknown. <italic>SOC1</italic> functions as an essential integrator for the endogenous and exogenous signals to maximize reproduction. Thus we identified six <italic>SOC1</italic>-like genes in Gossypium that clustered into two groups. <italic>GhSOC1-1</italic> contained a large intron and clustered with monocot <italic>SOC1s</italic>, while <italic>GhSOC1-2/</italic>3 were close to dicot <italic>SOC1s</italic>. <italic>GhSOC1s</italic> expression gradually increased during seedling development suggesting their conserved function in promoting flowering, which was supported by the early flowering phenotype of <italic>35S:GhSOC1-1 Arabidopsis</italic> lines and the delayed flowering of cotton silencing lines. Furthermore, <italic>GhSOC1-1</italic> responded to short-day and high temperature conditions, while <italic>GhSOC1-2</italic> responded to long-day conditions. <italic>GhSOC1-3</italic> might function to promote flowering in response to low temperature and cold. Taken together, our results demonstrate that <italic>GhSOC1s</italic> respond differently to light and temperature and act cooperatively to activate <italic>GhLFY</italic> expression to promote floral transition and enlighten us in cotton adaptation to environment that is helpful in improvement of cotton maturity.</p>