Leafy (Lfy1) is a typical late‐flowering mutant with locus being fine‐mapped, but its underlying molecular mechanism is unknown. In this study, two near‐isogenic lines, with and without the Lfy1 locus, were developed for phenotypic and transcriptional analysis of Lfy1‐mediated floral transition. Phenotypic observation showed that wild‐type (WT) plants transited into the tassel primordium at the V6 (6 expanded leaves) stage, whereas the Lfy1 mutant maintained the vegetative stage up to the V9 stage. Transcriptome analysis of shoot tips of both lines revealed more differentially expressed genes (DEGs) at the V5 (394) than the V3 stage (227). Functional enrichment analysis showed that circadian clock pathway genes exhibited lower expression levels in the Lfy1 mutant than in the WT at the V5 stage. A few integrator genes that functioned as downstream regulators of circadian clock genes also showed a lower transcript abundance in mutant lines, suggesting that the Lfy1‐mediated late‐flowering phenotype was partially caused by inefficient expression of circadian clock pathway genes. These results provide molecular clues for the late‐flowering phenotype of the Lfy1 mutant.

中文翻译：

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多叶近等基因系的转录组分析为玉米（Zea mays）的花期转化提供分子见解

Leafy（Lfy1）是典型的晚开花突变体，其基因座被精细映射，但其潜在的分子机制尚不清楚。在这项研究中，开发了两种具有和没有Lfy1基因座的近等基因系，用于Lfy1介导的花期转化的表型和转录分析。表型观察表明，野生型（WT）植物在V6（6片展开的叶片）阶段过渡到流苏原基，而Lfy1突变体维持营养阶段直至V9阶段。两条线的茎尖的转录组分析显示，在V5（394）处比V3阶段（227）更多的差异表达基因（DEG）。功能富集分析表明，在V5阶段，昼夜节律时钟基因在Lfy1突变体中的表达水平低于野生型。一些充当昼夜节律时钟基因下游调节因子的整合子基因在突变株系中也显示出较低的转录本丰度，这表明Lfy1介导的晚开花表型部分是由于昼夜节律时钟基因的低效表达引起的。这些结果为Lfy1突变体的晚开花表型提供了分子线索。