Centro de Edafología y Biología Aplicada del Segura (CEBAS)-CSIC, Department of Stress Biology and Plant Pathology, PO Box 164, 30100 Espinardo, Murcia, Spain.
Microscopy Core Facility, Área Científica y Técnica de Investigación, Universidad de Murcia, PO Box 164, 30100 Espinardo, Murcia, Spain.
Ann Bot. 2024 Apr 10;133(2):305-320. doi: 10.1093/aob/mcad186.
Given the lack of specific studies on floral development in melon (Cucumis melo L.), we carried out an extensive study involving morphological and transcriptomic analyses to characterize floral development in this species.
Using an andromonoecious line, we analysed the development of floral buds in male and hermaphrodite flowers with both light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. Based on flower lengths, we established a correlation between the developmental stages and four main episodes of floral development and conducted an extensive RNA sequencing analysis of these episodes.
We identified 12 stages of floral development, from the appearance of the floral meristems to anthesis. The main structural differences between male and hermaphrodite flowers appeared between stages 6 and 7; later stages of development leading to the formation of organs and structures in both types of flowers were also described. We analysed the gene expression patterns of the four episodes in flower development to find the genes that were specific to each given episode. Among others, we identified genes that defined the passage from one episode to the next according to the ABCDE model of floral development.
This work combines a detailed morphological analysis and a comprehensive transcriptomic study to enable characterization of the structural and molecular mechanisms that determine the floral development of an andromonoecious genotype in melon. Taken together, our results provide a first insight into gene regulation networks in melon floral development that are crucial for flowering and pollen formation, highlighting potential targets for genetic manipulation to improve crop yield of melon in the future.
由于缺乏关于甜瓜（Cucumis melo L.）花发育的具体研究，我们进行了广泛的研究，包括形态学和转录组分析，以描述该物种的花发育。
使用雌雄同株系，我们用光镜和扫描电子显微镜分析了雄花和两性花的花蕾发育。根据花的长度，我们建立了发育阶段与花发育的四个主要阶段之间的相关性，并对这些阶段进行了广泛的 RNA 测序分析。
我们确定了 12 个花发育阶段，从花分生组织的出现到开花。雄花和两性花之间的主要结构差异出现在第 6 阶段和第 7 阶段之间；还描述了导致两种花器官和结构形成的后期发育阶段。我们分析了花发育的四个阶段的基因表达模式，以找到每个特定阶段特有的基因。其中，我们根据花发育的 ABCDE 模型确定了定义从一个阶段到下一个阶段的基因。
这项工作结合了详细的形态学分析和全面的转录组研究，使我们能够描述决定甜瓜雌雄同株基因型花发育的结构和分子机制。总之，我们的结果提供了对甜瓜花发育基因调控网络的初步了解，这些网络对开花和花粉形成至关重要，突出了未来遗传操纵以提高甜瓜产量的潜在目标。
