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bioRxiv · 10.1101/174920

Spring flowering habit in field pennycress (Thlaspi arvense) has arisen multiple independent times

Dorn, K. M.·Johnson, E. B.·Daniels, E.·Wyse, D.·Marks, M. D.
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Abstract

- Pennycress (Thlaspi arvense L.) is currently being developed as a new cold-season oilseed crop. Like many Brassicaceae, pennycress can exhibit either a winter or spring annual phenotype. In Arabidopsis, mutations in negative regulators of flowering, including FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC) and FRIGIDA can cause the transition to a spring annual habit. The genetics underlying the difference between spring and winter annual pennycress are currently unknown.\n\n- Using whole genome sequencing across wild spring annual pennycress accessions, co-segregation analyses, and comparative genomics approaches, we identify new alleles of TaFLC and explore their geographic distribution.\n\n- We report that loss of function mutations in TaFLC confer the spring annual phenotype in pennycress. We have also identified four natural alleles of TaFLC that confer a spring annual growth habit. The two spring annual FLC alleles present in European accessions were only identified in accessions collected in Montana, USA.\n\n- In pennycress, the spring annual habit has arisen several independent times. Accessions harboring the two European alleles were introduced to North America, likely after the species became a widespread on the continent. These findings provide new information on the natural history of the introduction and spread of the spring annual phenotype in pennycress.

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Dorn, K. M., Johnson, E. B., Daniels, E., Wyse, D., Marks, M. D.. 2017-08-11. Spring flowering habit in field pennycress (Thlaspi arvense) has arisen multiple independent times. https://doi.org/10.1101/174920

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