文章基本信息

标题：Cuscuta australis (dodder) parasite eavesdrops on the host plants’ FT signals to flower
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作者：Guojing Shen ; Nian Liu ; Jingxiong Zhang 等
期刊名称：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN：0027-8424
电子版ISSN：1091-6490
出版年度：2020
卷号：117
期号：37
页码：23125-23130
DOI：10.1073/pnas.2009445117
出版社：The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要：Many plants use environmental cues, including seasonal changes of day length (photoperiod), to control their flowering time. Under inductive conditions, FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) protein is synthesized in leaves, and FT protein is a mobile signal, which is able to travel to the shoot apex to induce flowering. Dodders ( Cuscuta , Convolvulaceae) are root- and leafless plants that parasitize a large number of autotrophic plant species with varying flowering time. Remarkably, some dodder species, e.g., Cuscuta australis , are able to synchronize their flowering with the flowering of their hosts. Detailed sequence inspection and expression analysis indicated that the FT gene in dodder C. australis very likely does not function in activating flowering. Using soybean host plants cultivated under inductive and noninductive photoperiod conditions and soybean and tobacco host plants, in which FT was overexpressed and knocked out, respectively, we show that FT-induced flowering of the host is likely required for both host and parasite flowering. Biochemical analysis revealed that host-synthesized FT signals are able to move into dodder stems, where they physically interact with a dodder FD transcription factor to activate dodder flowering. This study demonstrates that FTs can function as an important interplant flowering signal in host–dodder interactions. The unique means of flowering regulation of dodder illustrates how regressive evolution, commonly found in parasites, may facilitate the physiological synchronization of parasite and host, here allowing the C. australis parasite to time reproduction exactly with that of their hosts, likely optimizing parasite fitness.
关键词：Cuscuta ; dodder ; flowering ; FLOWERING LOCUS T ; parasitic plant