Rootstock Affects Floral Induction in Citrus Engaging the Expression of the FLOWERING LOCUS T (CiFT)

Stefania Bennici, Giuseppina Las Casas, Gaetano Distefano, Alessandra Gentile, Giuseppe Lana, Mario Di Guardo, Elisabetta Nicolosi, Stefano La Malfa and Alberto Continella
Additional contact information
Stefania Bennici: Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment (Di3A), University of Catania, Via Valdisavoia 5, 95123 Catania, Italy
Giuseppina Las Casas: Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment (Di3A), University of Catania, Via Valdisavoia 5, 95123 Catania, Italy
Gaetano Distefano: Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment (Di3A), University of Catania, Via Valdisavoia 5, 95123 Catania, Italy
Alessandra Gentile: Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment (Di3A), University of Catania, Via Valdisavoia 5, 95123 Catania, Italy
Giuseppe Lana: Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment (Di3A), University of Catania, Via Valdisavoia 5, 95123 Catania, Italy
Mario Di Guardo: Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment (Di3A), University of Catania, Via Valdisavoia 5, 95123 Catania, Italy
Elisabetta Nicolosi: Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment (Di3A), University of Catania, Via Valdisavoia 5, 95123 Catania, Italy
Stefano La Malfa: Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment (Di3A), University of Catania, Via Valdisavoia 5, 95123 Catania, Italy
Alberto Continella: Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment (Di3A), University of Catania, Via Valdisavoia 5, 95123 Catania, Italy

Agriculture, 2021, vol. 11, issue 2, 1-11

Abstract: In Citrus , flower induction represents the transition from vegetative to reproductive growth. The regulation of flower induction is mainly triggered by exposure to low temperatures and water-deficit stress, which activates the signaling cascade leading to an increased expression of the citrus orthologs of the FLOWERING LOCUS T ( CiFT ). In this study, the relationship between rootstock and flower induction under Mediterranean field conditions was investigated by monitoring the expression levels of the floral promoter CiFT2 in leaves of the pigmented sweet orange “Tarocco Scirè” grafted onto “C35” citrange and “Swingle” citrumelo rootstocks. The latter two are known to confer, respectively, high and low yield efficiency to the scion. In both rootstock/scion combinations, CiFT2 showed a seasonal expression with a peak during the inductive period in January triggered by cold temperature. The “Tarocco Scirè”/”C35” citrange combination showed the highest expression levels for CiFT2 ; this increased expression was correlated with yield and a higher number of flowers in the following spring, suggesting a significant effect of rootstocks on flower induction mediated by the overexpression of the CiFT2 gene.

Keywords: reproductive biology; endogenous factor; gene expression; “C35” citrange; “Swingle” citrumelo; Citrus sinensis (L.) Osb (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/11/2/140/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/11/2/140/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:11:y:2021:i:2:p:140-:d:495875

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().