The Cold-Regulated Genes of Blueberry and Their Response to Overexpression of VcDDF1 in Several Tissues.
Expression of blueberry cold-regulated genes (VcCORs) could play a role in the variable cold hardiness of blueberry tissues. In this study, transcriptome comparisons were conducted to reveal expression of VcCORs in non-acclimated leaves, flower buds, and flowers of both non-transgenic and transgenic blueberries containing an overexpressed blueberry DWARF AND DELAYED FLOWERING gene (VcDDF1) as well as in fully chilled flower buds of non-transgenic blueberry. In non-transgenic blueberries, 57.5% of VcCOR genes showed differential expression in at least one of the three pairwise comparisons between non-acclimated leaves, flower buds, and flowers, and six out of nine dehydration-responsive element-binding factors showed differential expression. In addition, expression of VcDDF1 was not cold-inducible in non-transgenic blueberries and had higher expression in flowers than in leaves or non-acclimated flower buds. In transgenic blueberries, overexpression of VcDDF1 resulted in higher VcDDF1 expression in leaves than in flower buds and flowers. VcDDF1 overexpression enhanced expression of blueberry CBF1 and CBF3 in leaves and repressed expression of CBF3 in both flower buds and flowers. Overall, the results revealed tissue-specific expression patterns of VcCORs. The responses of VcCORs to overexpression of VcDDF1 suggest that it is possible to increase plant cold hardiness through overexpression of a non-cold-inducible gene.
['Walworth|Aaron|A|0000-0001-7981-9657', 'Song|Guo-Qing|GQ|0000-0001-9020-9884']
D000222:Adaptation, Physiological D017360:Arabidopsis D029798:Blueberry Plants D003080:Cold Temperature D005615:Freezing D020869:Gene Expression Profiling D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant D017343:Genes, Plant D010940:Plant Proteins D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified D015203:Reproducibility of Results D014157:Transcription Factors D059467:Transcriptome
cold-regulated genes dehydration-responsive element-binding factor tissue-specific expression C-repeat-binding factor DDF1 Vaccinium corymbosum freezing tolerance