Universität zu Köln

Lin, Yi-Chen (2022). Deciphering the Variation in Flowering Behaviour in a Norwegian Population of Perennial Arabis alpina. PhD thesis, Universität zu Köln.

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Abstract

The perennial model species Arabis alpina exhibits various flowering behaviour amongst natural populations that range geographically from northern Spain to Norway. The Spanish population has previously been studied and the floral induction can only occur in response to winter cold (vernalization). However, the Norwegian population exhibits flowering behaviours that are not present in the Spanish population. In the absence of vernalization, the Norwegian population exhibits early- and late-flowering phenotypes, which are not due to variation in the timing of floral induction, but to differences in bud outgrowth. In the presence of vernalization, the flowering mechanisms of the early- and late-flowering accessions still differed. In the growth chamber, the activity of axillary meristems within the V1 zone is unique to the early-flowering. Genome-wide co-expression network analysis revealed that the majority of floral repressor genes in the early-flowering accession belonged to a single cluster, whereas in the late-flowering accession, these floral repressors were split between multiple clusters that showed similar qualitative expression patterns but asynchronous. The genetic basis of the variation in bud outgrowth was narrowed down to 759 Kb by analysing near-isogenic lines in the late-flowering genetic background that carried early flowering alleles on chromosome 8 that conferred early flowering. An in situ transplantation experiment in the natural environment also revealed that the early-flowering accession invests resources into growing numerous rosettes, ensuring that sufficient rosettes flower the subsequent year, whereas the late-flowering accession invests resources into producing a greater number of flowers, leading to more siliques, maximising offspring production. Taken together, the four research approaches in this study have facilitated a better understanding of the variation in the flowering behaviour within the Norwegian Riasten A. alpina population.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD thesis)
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID ORCID Put Code Lin, Yi-Chen ylin@mpipz.mpg.de UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED
URN:	urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-620495
Date:	17 June 2022
Language:	English
Faculty:	Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences
Divisions:	Außeruniversitäre Forschungseinrichtungen > MPI for Plant Breeding Research
Subjects:	Natural sciences and mathematics Life sciences Agriculture
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Keywords Language Arabis alpina English flowering behaviour English phenotypic variation English in situ transplantation English genome-wide co-expression network English quantitative trait locus mapping English
Date of oral exam:	14 June 2022
Referee:	Name Academic Title Coupland, George Prof. Dr. Hülskamp, Martin Prof. Dr.
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/62049