Biologia plantarum 52:251-258, 2008 | DOI: 10.1007/s10535-008-0054-z

CONSTANS delays flowering and affects tuber yield in potato

N. D. González-Schain1, P. Suárez-López1,*
1 Laboratory of Plant Molecular Genetics, CSIC-IRTA, Instituto de Biología Molecular de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

CONSTANS (CO) has a central role in the photoperiodic regulation of flowering in Arabidopsis thaliana. We show here that potato (Solanum tuberosum ssp. andigena) plants constitutively expressing Arabidopsis CO (pACo plants) flower late under all photoperiodic conditions tested. Exogenous application of gibberellic acid to pACo plants corrected their short stem phenotype but not their late flowering. To further understand the effect of CO in potato, we used three photoperiodic conditions: short days (SD), which strongly induce tuberisation of wild type plants, SD supplemented with a night break (SD+NB), which are moderately inductive, and tuberisation-inhibiting long days. Tuberisation of pACo plants was delayed under SD and very strongly delayed or completely inhibited under SD+NB, suggesting that CO affects an autonomous pathway controlling potato tuberisation. In addition, tuber yield, a trait of high agronomic relevance, was significantly increased in pACo plants expressing moderate CO levels. Our results indicate that CO affects flowering and stem elongation through distinct mechanisms and suggest that its effects on flowering and tuberisation in potato are photoperiod-independent.

Keywords: flowering time; photoperiod; Solanum tuberosum ssp. andigena; tuberisation
Subjects: Arabidopsis thaliana; auxins; flower, development; photon flux density; photoperiod; potato; Solanum tuberosum

Received: September 20, 2006; Accepted: May 3, 2007; Published: June 1, 2008Show citation

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González-Schain, N.D., & Suárez-López, P. (2008). CONSTANS delays flowering and affects tuber yield in potato. Biologia plantarum, 52(2), 251-258. doi: 10.1007/s10535-008-0054-z.
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