Ali Akgul¹ , Ayfer Akgul² , Scott D. Roberts³ , Richard L. Harkess⁴ , Susan V. Diehl²

1 Department of Basic Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine Mississippi State University, Starkville, MS, USA
2 Department of Sustainable Bioproducts, College of Forest Resources, Mississippi State University, Starkville, MS, USA
3 Department of Forestry, Mississippi State University, Starkville, MS, USA
4 Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, Mississippi State University, Starkville, MS, USA
Author    Correspondence author
Tree Genetics and Molecular Breeding, 2016, Vol. 6, No. 1   doi: 10.5376/tgmb.2016.06.0001
Received: 21 Mar., 2016    Accepted: 21 Apr., 2016    Published: 30 Jun., 2016

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Ali Akgul, Ayfer Akgul, Scott D. Roberts, Richard L. Harkess, Susan V. Diehl, 2016, Genetic Variation in the FT1 Locus Involved in Reproductive Onset in Populus deltoides, Tree Genetics and Molecular Breeding, 6(1): 1-10 (doi: 10.5376/tgmb.2016.06.0001)

The onset of reproduction is an important event in tree development and adaptation. Reproductive onset is controlled by the FT1 locus in poplar (Populus sp.). However, sequence variation in this locus is not well understood. To enable large-scale polymorphism studies, the aim of this research was to identify sequence variation in the FT1 locus in a small population of Populus deltoides with varying reproductive onset. Gene specific primers were designed to amplify four exons and three introns of FT1, from 14 genotypes. The sequence analysis showed 9 single nucleotide polymorphisms and 4 insertion-deletion sites located in introns of FT1. Transcript expression analysis in two groups with different reproductive onset phenotypes showed FT1 transcript expressed higher in the early flowering genotypes than late flowering genotype. This information expands the understanding of the genetic basis of phenotypic variation in reproductive onset in Populus deltoides.

Flowering; FT1; Poplar; Populus deltoides; Reproductive onset; Sequence