Comparative analysis of buds transcriptome and identification of two florigen gene AkFTs in Amorphophallus konjac

Abstract Leaves and flowers of Amorphophallus konjac do not develop simultaneously thus unique features can be elucidated through study of flowering transformation in A. konjac. In this study, transcriptome libraries of A. konjac leaf buds (LB) and flower buds (FB) were constructed followed by high-throughput sequencing. A total of 68,906 unigenes with an average length of 920 bp were obtained after library assembly. Out of these genes, 24,622 unigenes had annotation information. A total of 6859 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified through differential expression analysis using LB as control. Notably, 2415 DEGs were upregulated whereas 4444 DEGs were downregulated in the two transcriptomes. Go and KEGG analysis showed that the DEGs belonged to 44 functional categories and were implicated in 98 metabolic pathways and 38 DEGs involved in plant hormone signal transduction. Several genes were mined that may be involved in A. konjac flower bud differentiation and flower organ development. Eight DEGs were selected for verification of RNA-seq results using qRT-PCR analysis. Two FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) genes named AkFT1 and AkFT2 were identified though homologous analysis may be the florigen gene implicated in modulation of A. konjac flowering. These genes were significantly upregulated in flower buds compared with the expression levels on leaf buds. Overexpression of AkFT genes though heterologous expression in Arabidopsis showed that the transgenics flowered at a very early stage relative to wild type plants. These findings indicate that AkFT1 and AkFT2 function as regulation genes in A. konjac flowering development and the two genes may present similar functions during flowering transition.