We identified a pepper late-flowering mutant that is disrupted in the sequence of CaFT-LIKE, the ortholog of tomato SINGLE FLOWER TRUSS (SFT). Heterologous expression in tomato indicated that CaFT-LIKE has a conserved function as a flowering promoter and can rescue the wild-type phenotype of the tomato sft mutant. CaFT-LIKE confers a graft-transmissible signal for flowering initiation in tomato, implicating its function as a florigen. To test the relationship between CaFT-LIKE and FASCICULATE (FA), the ortholog of tomato SELF PRUNING (SP), we constructed the double mutant Caft-like fa. The phenotype of Caft-like fa resembled that of Caft-like, indicating epistasis of Caft-like over fa in controlling flowering time and sympodial shoot structure. To examine the association between the expression pattern of flowering genes and natural variation in flowering time, the expression levels of CaFT-LIKE and the flowering repressor CaAP2 were determined in a panel of early-flowering cultivars and late-flowering landraces and wild accessions. Strong positive and negative correlations between flowering time and expression levels of CaAP2 and CaFT-LIKE, respectively, were observed, indicating that high-expression alleles of CaFT-LIKE and low-expression alleles of CaAP2 were selected for early flowering during pepper domestication and breeding.

中文翻译：

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CaFT-LIKE 是胡椒中的开花促进剂，在番茄中起到成花素的作用

我们鉴定了一种辣椒晚花突变体，该突变体在 CaFT-LIKE 序列中被破坏，CaFT-LIKE 是番茄单花桁架 (SFT) 的直向同源物。番茄中的异源表达表明 CaFT-LIKE 作为开花启动子具有保守的功能，可以挽救番茄 sft 突变体的野生型表型。CaFT-LIKE 赋予番茄开花开始的嫁接传播信号，暗示其作为成花素的功能。为了测试CaFT-LIKE和FASCICULATE（FA）之间的关系，番茄自修剪（SP）的直系同源物，我们构建了双突变体Caft-like fa。Caft-like fa 的表型与 Caft-like 的表型相似，表明 Caft-like 对 fa 的上位性在控制开花时间和合生枝结构方面。为了检查开花基因的表达模式与开花时间的自然变异之间的关联，在一组早花品种、晚花地方品种和野生种质中测定了 CaFT-LIKE 和开花抑制因子 CaAP2 的表达水平。分别观察到开花时间与 CaAP2 和 CaFT-LIKE 表达水平之间的强正相关和负相关，表明在辣椒驯化和育种过程中选择了 CaFT-LIKE 高表达等位基因和 CaAP2 低表达等位基因用于早花.