Authors: Noriko Yamagishi Shintaro Sasaki Kousuke Yamagata Sadao Komori Momoyo Nagase Masato Wada Toshiya Yamamoto Nobuyuki Yoshikawa
Publish Date: 2010/12/05
Volume: 75, Issue: 1-2, Pages: 193-204
Abstract
Tree crops have a long juvenile period which is a serious constraint for genetic improvement and experimental research For example apple remains in a juvenile phase for more than five years after seed germination Here we report about induction of rapid flowering in apple seedlings using the Apple latent spherical virus ALSV vector expressing a FLOWERING LOCUS T FT gene from Arabidopsis thaliana Apple seedlings could be flowered at 15–2 months after inoculation to cotyledons of seeds just after germination with ALSV expressing the FT gene A half of precocious flowers was normal in appearance with sepals petals stamens and pistils Pollen from a precocious flower successfully pollinated flowers of ‘Fuji’ apple from which fruits developed normally and nextgeneration seeds were produced Our system using the ALSV vector promoted flowering time of apple seedlings within two months after germination and shortened the generation time from seed germination to nextgeneration seed maturation to within 7 months when pollen from precocious flowers was used for pollination
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