earticle

영어

Juglans mandshurica is a precious timber and economic tree species. The species is monoecious heterodichogamous with protogynous and protandrous mating strategies that occur at a 1:1 ratio and are randomly distributed in the population. The inconsistent male and female flowering periods of the same mating type result in the low yield of this species. In this study, the morphological and anatomical development of the male and female flowers of J. mandshurica were analyzed by histological and scanning electron microscopy analysis. In addtion, the crucial gene involved in plant flowering, LEAFY (LFY) was cloned from J. mandshurica by homologous cloning, and the expression analysis of JmLFY in different organs at various developmental stages and its genetic transformation and functional verification were also conducted. The results revealed that the male floral morphological development of J. mandshurica was divided into seven phases, while that of the female flower was nine. Four stages were shared between the male and female flower’s anatomical development. These results indicate that there was minimal overlap between sexual functions within the same mating type, guaranteeing synchronization, mutual non-interference, outcrossing, and avoidance of self-fertilization. Overexpression of JmLFY gene promoted the expression of flowering related genes (such as AtAP1、AtSOC1 and AtPI) and the transformation from vegetative growth to reproductive growth in Arabidopsis, promoted the flowering about 8d in advance. These results provide a theoretical basis for improving fruit yield and quality by artificial pollination control, shortening childhood and allocating protogynous and protandrous individuals in a population reasonably.