Characterization of Genes Associated with TGA7 During the Floral Transition

Background: The TGA family has ten members and plays vital roles in plant defence and development in Arabidopsis . However, involvement of TGAs in control of flowering time remains largely unknown and requires further investigation. Results: To study the role of TGA7 during the floral transition, we first tested phenotypes of tga7 mutant, which displayed delay-flowering phenotype under both long-day and short-day conditions. We then performed flowering genetic pathways analysis and found that both autonomous and thermosensory pathways may affect TGA7 expression. Furthermore, to reveal differential gene expression profiles between wild-type (WT) and tga7 , cDNA libraries were generated for WT and tga7 mutant seedlings at 9 DAG (days after germination). For each library, deep-sequencing produced approximately 6.67 Gb of high-quality sequences with the majority (84.55%) of mRNAs between 500 and 3000 nucleotides in length. Three hundred and twenty-five differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified between WT and tga7 mutant seedlings. Among them, four genes are associated with flowering time control. Differential expression of the four flowering-related DEGs was further validated by qRT-PCR. Conclusions: Transciptomic sequencing coupled with flowering genetic pathways analysis provides a framework for further studying the role of TGA7 in promoting flowering.