Photoperiod gene control over partitioning between reproductive and vegetative growth

Abstract

The hypothesis tested was that lack of photoperiod gene activity allows inherent partitioning of photosynthate to continued growth of the earliest potential buds, flowers, pods, and seeds (the organs that give rise to the yield). Alternatively, and competitively, photoperiod gene activity causes the photosynthate to be partitioned predominantly toward continued growth of new vegetative organs plus later initiation of more reproductive (yield) organs. This hypothesis was tested by comparing an insensitive and a photoperiod-sensitive bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) cultivar and their F1 with F2 segregates of undetermined genotype. Randomly derived homozygous F8 segregates were also compared. The F8 generation included one photoperiod-insensitive and one photoperiod-sensitive genotype in a 1:1 ratio, which verified control by one photoperiod gene. Under long daylength (LD), in addition to early versus late flowering and maturity, the two genotypes expressed opposite levels of 23 other traits that would be changed by competitive partitioning of the photosynthate. In contrast, under short daylength (SD), both genotypes flowered and matured early, and both expressed the levels for all 25 traits that the photoperiod-insensitive genotype expressed in both SD and LD. The photoperiod gene interacted with daylength to control the levels of all three major physiological components of yield: the aerial biomass, harvest index, and days to maturity. Included among the other traits with levels altered by daylength-modulated photoperiod gene activity were: the number of branches, nodes, leaves and leaf area, the rate of yield accumulation, and sink activity.