Density effects on semi-dwarf and early flowering mutants of Arabidopsis thaliana under continuous light

Abstract

Plant growth promotion and inhibition under low- and high-density conditions (referred to as the density effect) has been studied extensively. Here, we show that such density effects were unaffected by the position of wild-type (WT) and gibberellic acid insensitive (gai) strains of Arabidopsis thaliana (Arabidopsis) within pots. Additionally, petanko 1 (pta1) and pta5 were newly discovered alleles of the ROTUNDIFOLIA 3 (ROT3) and DWARF 4 (DWF4) genes that are involved in brassinosteroid biosynthesis. Unlike gai, the semi-dwarf mutants of pta1 and pta5 exhibited normal flowering times and a shortening of rosette leaves at high densities. Moreover, the pta1 and pta5 variants suppressed flowering stem shortening at high densities. pta5, but not pta1 suppressed the reduction in silique number at intermediate densities. SPINDLY (SPY) is a negative regulator of GA signaling, while PHYTOCHROME B (PHYB) is a red-light photoreceptor. High-density growth did not reduce the flowering time of phyB mutants, but did affect that of spy mutants. Neither spy nor phyB suppressed the shortening of rosette leaves at high densities; however, spy suppressed flowering stem shortening. Moreover, spy suppressed the reduction of silique number at high densities, while and phyB promoted the decrease. These data suggest that GA, BR, and light signaling pathways play important roles in the density effect.