Antisense Expression of Apple -like Gene () Promotes Early Flowering and Causes Phenotypic Changes in Tobacco.

Apples ( Borkh.) require up to several years for flowering and bearing fruits. The transition from vegetative to reproductive phase is controlled by floral regulators such as and . mediates the maintenance of vegetative phase, unlike the antagonistic function of to promote the transition into reproductive phase. In this study, we isolated apple -like gene () to elucidate various phenotypic traits triggered by the antisense expression of in tobacco apart from its floral induction function. Early flowering was observed in the tobacco line with knockout, indicating the reduced time for transition to vegetative phases. Quantitative reverse-transcription PCR showed upregulation of genes involved in the regulation of floral induction, including and , and downregulation of carotenoid cleavage dioxygenases () and -like genes in transgenic lines. Interestingly, transgenic tobacco expressing antisense exhibited distinct morphological changes in lateral shoot outgrowth, internode length, and the development of leaves, flowers, and fruits. The results suggested that using the antisense expression of gene is one of the approaches to shorten the vegetable phase and proposed improvement of plant architecture in horticultural crops.