Browsing by Author "Cirilli, M."

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    In vitro plant culture system induces phase transition in fruit-bearing plants
    (Acta Horticulturae, 2016-02-25) Sgamma, Tiziana; Cirilli, M.; Caboni, E.; Maurizio, M.; Thomas, B.; Muleo, Rosario
    The juvenile to adult switch is the most important post-embryonic transition. In woody plants the juvenile phase can last many years with a great economic impact. In Arabidopsis, the small RNAs miR156 and miR172 play a crucial but opposite role in the regulation of this process. miR156 maintains juvenility, negatively regulating SPLs genes, while miR172 promotes adult transition, targeting the floral repressors AP2-like transcription factors. In this work, peach (Prunus persica L. Batch) orthologs of Arabidopsis epigenetic and genetic factors involved in the juvenility to adult phase transition were studied. In peach, higher levels of ppa-miR156 were detected in seedlings, in vitro and extra vitro plants than in adult plants. Also, PpSPLs were more expressed in adult plants, confirming a possible role for the miR156-SPL pathway in promoting juvenile-like characteristics. ppa-miR172 expression level was low in seedlings and in vitro plants but an increase was observed in the adult donor plant, corresponding to lower expression of PpAP2-like genes. In Arabidopsis, flower induction is also promoted by activation of the FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) gene. In peach leaf tissue, low levels of PpFT-like expression in rejuvenated plants and seedlings were detected. We propose that, in peach, conserved key genes present in herbaceous plants and woody species are involved in juvenile to adult and adult to juvenile-like phase transitions.