Morphological changes of RosaXhybrida by a chimeric repressor of Arabidopsis TCP3

Abstract

Chimeric repressor gene-silencing technology is a useful tool for changing morphology of ornamental plants. It has previously been demonstrated that the chimeric repressor TCP3SRDX, which consists of Arabidopsis TCP3 and an ERF-associated amphiphilic repression motif repression domain, perturbs the marginal morphology of Arabidopsis leaves and flowers. To obtain new rose cultivars that have ornamental values, we attempted to alter the morphology of Rosaxhybrida cv. Lavande with TCP3SRDX. The TCP3SRDX transgenic rose plants showed interesting phenotypes: the number of leaflets and the size of leaf teeth increased, the petals were wavy, and the sepals were compound-leafy. We succeeded in altering rose morphology using Arabidopsis TCP3 without the sequence information of a TCP3 homologue in the target plant species.