Search

Nine open-pollinated families of Picea glauca (Moench) Voss from the Region D1 Controlled Parentage Program (Alberta, Canada) were systematically chosen from fast, medium and slow-growth rankings based on breeding values for height from field progeny tests at age 30 years. Seeds from these families were sown and grown to age 3 years to analyze the performance and correlations of growth, physiological traits and expression of gibberellin-related genes, with and without elevated gibberellic acid 3 (GA3) application, under greenhouse conditions. We observed a significant interaction effect between families and growth groups subjected to 50 μg μl−1 of GA3 treatment, causing a decrease in apical internode length, diameter, volume and absolute transcript level for fast-growing families but an increase for families in the slow-growth group for the same traits. We also observed that in the apical internode, the gene PgGA20ox1 had significantly more relative expression under the elevated GA3 treatment than the control trees. In the stem, PgGA3ox1 showed a significantly higher relative expression under elevated GA3 treatment compared with control trees. Also, the slow-growth group showed more relative expression of PgGA20ox1 (in the apical internode) and PgGA3ox1 (in the stem) than the fast-growth group. The apical internode length and diameter significantly increased by 24% and 16%, respectively, with the hormone treatment in the slow growing group. In general, the PgGID1 and PgDELLA1 genes were upregulated and downregulated respectively, in spruce shoots under the GA3 treatment, meaning a positive feedback regulation by those genes were influencing PgGA20ox1 and PgGA3ox1 expression in that tissue type. Moreover, there was a significant correlation between absolute transcript levels of PgGA20ox1 in the apical internode and apical internode length, and absolute transcript levels of PgGA3ox1 in the stem and the diameter, in the fast-growth group families. This study shows that expression of GA genes is a limiting factor for growth in certain white spruce families with a complex feedback mechanism. Finally, absolute transcript levels of endogenous GA relative to growth parameters in juvenile seedlings could potentially be used to accelerate the early selection of families with inherently rapid apical and radial growth expansion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined endogenous abscisic acid [(+)-ABA] amounts and mRNA populations in white spruce (Picea glauca (Moench) Voss) somatic embryos in liquid suspension culture during a pretreatment prior to induction of maturation with exogenous (+)-ABA. The pretreatment consisted of removal of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) from the multiplication medium for 7 days. The removal of 2,4-D resulted in a slight increase in endogenous ABA in pretreated tissues compared to nonpretreated tissues at the end of the 7-day pretreatment period (42.4 versus 20.0 pg mg−1 lyophilized tissue). Altered gene expression patterns were observed as early as one day after the start of the pretreatment, with more than 17 new polypeptides found in pretreated tissues. The influence of pretreatment continued to be observed after tissues were transferred to ABA-containing maturation medium. By comparing mRNA populations in pretreated and nonpretreated tissues cultured on either ABA-containing or ABA-free maturation medium, at least 12 mRNAs were observed to be induced by ABA, among which three polypeptides were ABA inducible only in pretreated tissues. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Known members of the plant SABATH family of methyltransferases have important biological functions by methylating hormones, signalling molecules and other metabolites. While all previously characterized SABATH genes were isolated from angiosperms, in this article, we report on the isolation and functional characterization of SABATH genes from white spruce (Picea glauca [Moench] Voss), a gymnosperm. Through EST database search, three genes that encode proteins significantly homologous to known SABATH proteins were identified from white spruce. They were named PgSABATH1, PgSABATH2 and PgSABATH3, respectively. Full length cDNAs of these three genes were cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli. The E. coli-expressed recombinant proteins were tested for methyltransferase activity with a large number of compounds. While no activity was detected for PgSABATH2 and PgSABATH3, PgSABATH1 displayed the highest level of catalytic activity with indole-3-acetic acid (IAA). PgSABATH1 was, therefore, renamed PgIAMT1. Under steady-state conditions, PgIAMT1 exhibited apparent Km values of 18.2 µM for IAA. Homology-based structural modelling of PgIAMT1 revealed that the active site of PgIAMT1 is highly similar to other characterized IAMTs from angiosperms. PgIAMT1 showed expression in multiple tissues, with the highest level of expression detected in embryonic tissues. During somatic embryo maturation, a significant reduction in PgIAMT1 transcript levels was observed when developing cotyledons become apparent which is indicative of mature embryos. The biological roles of white spruce SABATH genes, especially those of PgIAMT1, and the evolution of the SABATH family are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]