CsLAZY1 mediates shoot gravitropism and branch angle in tea plants (Camellia sinensis)

作者：Xiaobo Xia, Xiaozeng Mi, Ling Jin, Rui Guo, Junyan Zhu, Hui Xie, Lu Liu, Yanlin An, Cao Zhang, Chaoling Wei, Shengrui Liu · 发表于：BMC Plant Biology · 年份：2021 · DOI：10.1186/s12870-021-03044-z · 被引用次数：24 · 研究领域：Plant Molecular Biology Research、Plant Reproductive Biology、Tree Root and Stability Studies

BACKGROUND: Branch angle is a pivotal component of tea plant architecture. Tea plant architecture not only affects tea quality and yield but also influences the efficiency of automatic tea plant pruning. However, the molecular mechanism controlling the branch angle, which is an important aspect of plant architecture, is poorly understood in tea plants. RESULTS: In the present study, three CsLAZY genes were identified from tea plant genome data through sequence homology analysis. Phylogenetic tree displayed that the CsLAZY genes had high sequence similarity with LAZY genes from other plant species, especially those in woody plants. The expression patterns of the three CsLAZYs were surveyed in eight tissues. We further verified the expression levels of the key CsLAZY1 transcript in different tissues among eight tea cultivars and found that CsLAZY1 was highly expressed in stem. Subcellular localization analysis showed that the CsLAZY1 protein was localized in the plasma membrane. CsLAZY1 was transferred into Arabidopsis thaliana to investigate its potential role in regulating shoot development. Remarkably, the CsLAZY1 overexpressed plants responded more effectively than the wild-type plants to a gravity inversion treatment under light and dark conditions. The results indicate that CsLAZY1 plays an important role in regulating shoot gravitropism in tea plants. CONCLUSIONS: The results provide important evidence for understanding the functions of CsLAZY1 in regulating shoot gravit...