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Agave tequilana MADS genes show novel expression patterns in meristems, developing bulbils and floral organs

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Abstract

Agave tequilana is a monocarpic perennial species that flowers after 5–8 years of vegetative growth signaling the end of the plant’s life cycle. When fertilization is unsuccessful, vegetative bulbils are induced on the umbels of the inflorescence near the bracteoles from newly formed meristems. Although the regulation of inflorescence and flower development has been described in detail for monocarpic annuals and polycarpic species, little is known at the molecular level for these processes in monocarpic perennials, and few studies have been carried out on bulbils. Histological samples revealed the early induction of umbel meristems soon after the initiation of the vegetative to inflorescence transition in A. tequilana. To identify candidate genes involved in the regulation of floral induction, a search for MADS-box transcription factor ESTs was conducted using an A. tequilana transcriptome database. Seven different MIKC MADS genes classified into 6 different types were identified based on previously characterized A. thaliana and O. sativa MADS genes and sequences from non-grass monocotyledons. Quantitative real-time PCR analysis of the seven candidate MADS genes in vegetative, inflorescence, bulbil and floral tissues uncovered novel patterns of expression for some of the genes in comparison with orthologous genes characterized in other species. In situ hybridization studies using two different genes showed expression in specific tissues of vegetative meristems and floral buds. Distinct MADS gene regulatory patterns in A. tequilana may be related to the specific reproductive strategies employed by this species.

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Acknowledgments

Many thanks go to local Agave growers (especially Dr. Javier Arroyo Solis) who generously provided plants for sampling. We are also grateful to Flor Zamudio-Hernández and Enrique Ibarra-Laclette for carrying out the qRT-PCR analysis, to Aurora Verver y Vargas for help with the histological studies, to Dr. Luis Delaye for help with sequence analysis and to Dr. Aída Martínez-Hernández for help in generating the transcriptome data. Thanks also to Drs. Stefan de Folter and Nayelli Marsch-Martinez for helpful discussions and to Drs. Stefan de Folter and Luis Herrera-Estrella for critical reading of the manuscript. We would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for helpful and pertinent suggestions. The research was supported by Fondos Mixtos GTO-04-C02-143 from Guanajuato State, Mexico and SCDS and MJAJ are indebted to CONACyT, Mexico for doctoral fellowships 171609 and 191408.

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  1. Department of Genetic Engineering, CINVESTAV Unidad Irapuato, Km 9.6 Libramiento Norte, Carr. Irapuato-León, Apdo. Postal 629, CP 36821, Irapuato, Guanajuato, Mexico

    Silvia del Carmen Delgado Sandoval, María Jazmín Abraham Juárez & June Simpson

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  1. Silvia del Carmen Delgado Sandoval
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Correspondence to June Simpson.

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Communicated by Thomas Dresselhaus.

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497_2011_176_MOESM1_ESM.tif

Supplementary Fig. 1. MIKC structure of proteins encoded by A. tequilana MADS ESTs. Different colors indicate the typical M, I, K and C domains. Supplementary material 1 (TIFF 169 kb)

497_2011_176_MOESM2_ESM.tif

Supplementary Fig. 2. Quantitative real-time PCR analysis of two control genes, polyubiquitin (PU) and ubiquitin11 (UBQ11), was used to analyze AtqMADS gene expression. Plant tissues analyzed included immature, sinking 1 m, tepal, anther, pistil and ovary, leaf, and bulbil stages B0, B2 and B4. Supplementary material 2 (TIFF 80 kb)

497_2011_176_MOESM3_ESM.doc

Supplementary Table 1. Putative A. tequilana MADS-box cDNA sequences are listed by name, gi and GenBank accession numbers (JF699268-JF699275); accession numbers for MADS-box sequences from other species used for comparison are also listed. Supplementary material 3 (DOC 110 kb)

497_2011_176_MOESM4_ESM.doc

Supplementary Table 2. Specific primers used for quantitative real-time PCR analysis. Supplementary material 4 (DOC 25 kb)

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Delgado Sandoval, S.C., Abraham Juárez, M.J. & Simpson, J. Agave tequilana MADS genes show novel expression patterns in meristems, developing bulbils and floral organs. Sex Plant Reprod 25, 11–26 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00497-011-0176-x

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