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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Development and EvoDevo
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2024.1426838

Analysis on morphological characteristics and identification of candidate genes during the flowering development of alfalfa

Provisionally accepted
Fenqi Chen Fenqi Chen Kuiju Niu Kuiju Niu Huiling Ma Huiling Ma *
  • Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Flower development is a crucial and complex process in the reproductive stage of plants, which involves the interaction of multiple endogenous signals and environmental factors. However, regulatory mechanism of flower development was unknown in alfalfa (Medicago sativa). In this study, the three stages of flower development of 'M. sativa cv. Gannong No. 5' (G5) and its early flowering and multi flowering mutant (MG5) were comparatively analyzed by transcriptomics. The results showed that compared with late bud stage (S1), 14287 and 8351 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified at early flower stage (S2) in G5 and MG5, and 19941 and 19469 DEGs were identified at late flower stage (S3). Compared with S2, 9574 and 10870 DEGs were identified at S3 in G5 and MG5, respectively. Venn analysis revealed that 547 DEGs were identified among the three comparison groups.KEGG pathway enrichment analysis showed that these genes were involved in the development of alfalfa flowers through redox pathways and plant hormone signaling pathways. Key candidate genes including SnRK2, BSK, GID1, DELLA and CRE1, for regulating the development from buds to mature flowers in alfalfa were screened. In addition, differential expression of transcription factors such as MYB, AP2, bHLH, C2C2, MADS-box, NAC, bZIP, B3 and AUX/IAA also played an important role in this process. The results laid a theoretical foundation for studying the molecular mechanisms of the development process from buds to mature flowers in alfalfa.

    Keywords: alfalfa, flower development, Oxidation-Reduction, hormone signal transduction, Transcription Factors

    Received: 02 May 2024; Accepted: 24 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Chen, Niu and Ma. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Huiling Ma, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou, China

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