Establishment of platform towards the elucidation of factors involved in the induction of Japanese pear flower buds

Research Project

Project/Area Number	15K14659
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Research Field	Horticultural science
Research Institution	National Agriculture and Food Research Organization
Principal Investigator	MORIGUCHI Takaya 国立研究開発法人農業・食品産業技術総合研究機構, 果樹茶業研究部門, 研究領域長 (80343945)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	伊東明子国立研究開発法人農業・食品産業技術総合研究機構, 果樹茶業研究部門, 上級研究員 (30355383)
Project Period (FY)	2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 2017)
Budget Amount *help	¥3,770,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥870,000) Fiscal Year 2016: ¥1,950,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥450,000) Fiscal Year 2015: ¥1,820,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,400,000、Indirect Cost: ¥420,000)
Keywords	FLOWERING LOCUS T / 花芽分化 / ニホンナシ / TERMINAL FLOWER1 / RNA-seq / TFL1
Outline of Final Research Achievements	We previously showed no induction of Japanese pear FT in the flower buds at flower bud differentiation stage, instead, we observed the notable reduction of TFL1 expression level prior to flower bud differentiation, indicating that the down-regulation of TFL1 may be a trigger for flower bud differentiation in Japanese pear. Since no any precise environmental factors such as temperature for flower bud differentiation have been known, we tried to find such factors based on the TFL1 reduction as an indicator. To this end, RNA-seq analysis during flower bud differentiation was carried out. Resultantly, we found several genes showing similar or reverse expression patterns to TFL1, in which Apetala1, Fruitful 1, Leafy 1, and the genes related to plant hormone metabolizing enzymes were included. These results could provide useful platform for further elucidation of flower bud differentiation in Japanese pear.