Sainsbury Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom CB2 1LR.
Plant Physiol. 2013 Jun;162(2):800-11. doi: 10.1104/pp.113.218461. Epub 2013 Apr 22.
The success of the short-rotation coppice system in biomass willow (Salix spp.) relies on the activity of the shoot-producing meristems found on the coppice stool. However, the regulation of the activity of these meristems is poorly understood. In contrast, our knowledge of the mechanisms behind axillary meristem regulation in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) has grown rapidly in the past few years through the exploitation of integrated physiological, genetic, and molecular assays. Here, we demonstrate that these assays can be directly transferred to study the control of bud activation in biomass willow and to assess similarities with the known hormone regulatory system in Arabidopsis. Bud hormone response was found to be qualitatively remarkably similar in Salix spp. and Arabidopsis. These similarities led us to test whether Arabidopsis hormone mutants could be used to assess allelic variation in the cognate Salix spp. hormone genes. Allelic differences in Salix spp. strigolactone genes were observed using this approach. These results demonstrate that both knowledge and assays from Arabidopsis axillary meristem biology can be successfully applied to Salix spp. and can increase our understanding of a fundamental aspect of short-rotation coppice biomass production, allowing more targeted breeding.
短轮伐期灌木柳（Salix spp.）在生物质能方面的成功依赖于在萌生桩上发现的产生新梢的分生组织的活性。然而，这些分生组织的活性调控机制还知之甚少。相比之下，通过综合生理、遗传和分子测定的方法，我们对拟南芥（Arabidopsis thaliana）侧芽分生组织调控机制的了解在过去几年中迅速增长。在这里，我们证明这些测定方法可以直接转移到研究生物质柳芽激活的控制，并评估与已知的拟南芥激素调控系统的相似性。在柳属植物和拟南芥中，芽激素反应在质量上非常相似。这些相似性使我们能够测试拟南芥激素突变体是否可以用于评估同源柳属植物激素基因的等位变异。通过这种方法观察到了柳属植物中独脚金内酯基因的等位差异。这些结果表明，拟南芥侧芽分生组织生物学的知识和测定方法都可以成功地应用于柳属植物，并能增加我们对短轮伐期灌木柳生物质生产的一个基本方面的理解，从而实现更有针对性的培育。
