Evidence for an evolutionarily conserved interaction between cell wall biosynthesis and flowering in maize and sorghum

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Factors that affect flowering vary among different plant species, and in the grasses in particular the exact mechanism behind this transition is not fully understood. The <it>brown midrib (bm)</it> mutants of maize (<it>Zea mays</it> L.), which have altered cell wall composition, have different flowering dynamics compared to their wild-type counterparts. This is indicative of a link between cell wall biogenesis and flowering. In order to test whether this relationship also exists in other grasses, the flowering dynamics in sorghum (<it>Sorghum bicolor</it> (L.) Moench) were investigated. Sorghum is evolutionarily closely related to maize, and a set <it>of brown midrib (bmr)</it> mutants similar to the maize <it>bm</it> mutants is available, making sorghum a suitable choice for study in this context.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We compared the flowering time (time to half-bloom) of several different <it>bmr</it> sorghum lines and their wild-type counterparts. This revealed that the relationship between cell wall composition and flowering was conserved in sorghum. Specifically, the mutant <it>bmr7</it> flowered significantly earlier than the corresponding wild-type control, whereas the mutants <it>bmr2, bmr4, bmr6, bmr12,</it> and <it>bmr19</it> flowered later than their wild-type controls.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The change in flowering dynamics in several of the <it>brown midrib</it> sorghum lines provides evidence for an evolutionarily conserved mechanism that links cell wall biosynthesis to flowering dynamics. The availability of the sorghum <it>bmr</it> mutants expands the germplasm available to investigate this relationship in further detail.</p>

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