Chao Ma

• PhD
• Professor at China Agricultural University

Temporal decline in microRNA miR156 expression is crucial for the transition to, and maintenance of, the adult phase and flowering competence in flowering plants. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the temporal regulation of miR156 reduction remain largely unknown. Here, we investigated the epigenetic mechanism regulating the temporal sil...

During the floral transition, many plant species including chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum morifolium) require continuous photoperiodic stimulation for successful anthesis. Insufficient photoperiodic stimulation results in flower bud arrest or even failure. The molecular mechanisms underlying how continuous photoperiodic stimulation promotes anthesis...

Roses are among the most popular ornamental plants cultivated worldwide for their great economic, symbolic, and cultural importance. Nevertheless, rapid petal senescence markedly reduces rose (Rosa hybrida) flower quality and value. Petal senescence is a developmental process tightly regulated by various phytohormones. Ethylene accelerates petal se...

Chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum morifolium Ramat.) is one of the most economically important ornamental crops worldwide and a useful model for studying the photoperiodic control of flowering. However, current chrysanthemum research is limited by the lack of genome editing tools. Chrysanthemum indicum L. is often used as a model chrysanthemum, since it...

Among cut flowers, cultivated roses have the highest planting area and market share worldwide. The processes of flower opening and senescence largely determine the ornamental and economic value of flowers. Cut roses are often transported long distances; however, roses are perishable and undergo substantial postharvest deterioration, resulting in hu...

Main conclusion The predominant flavones in the ray florets of chrysanthemum flowers are apigenin and its derivatives. CmHY5 participates in apigenin biosynthesis by directly regulating the expression of FNSII-1 in chrysanthemum. Abstract Chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum morifolium) flowers have been used for centuries as functional food and in herbal...

In many plant species, petal abscission can be considered the final step of petal senescence. Cytokinins (CKs) are powerful suppressors of petal senescence; however, their role in petal abscission is ambiguous. Here, we observed that, in rose (Rosa hybrida), biologically active CK is accumulated during petal abscission and acts as an accelerator of...

Plant organ abscission is regulated by multiple physiological and biochemical processes. However, the transcriptional, translational, and post-translational modifications occurring during organ abscission have not been systematically investigated. In this study, we report transcriptome, proteome, and ubiquitome data for the abscission zone (AZ) of...

Chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum morifolium) is well known as a photoperiod‐sensitive flowering plant. However, it has also evolved into a temperature‐sensitive ecotype. Low temperature can promote the floral transition of the temperature‐sensitive ecotype, but little is known about the underlying molecular mechanisms. Here, we identified MADS AFFECTIN...

Chrysanthemum ( Chrysanthemum morifolium ) flowers have been used for centuries as functional food and in herbal tea and traditional medicine. The chrysanthemum flower contains significant amounts of the biologically active compound flavones, which has medicinal properties. However, the mechanism regulating flavones biosynthesis in chrysanthemum fl...

Plants have evolved complex mechanisms to reprogram growth in response to drought stress. In herbaceous perennial plant species, the rhizome, which is normally a propagation and storage organ, can also support plant growth in stressful environments and allows the plant to perennate and survive stress damage. However, the mechanisms that regulate rh...

Drought is a major abiotic stress that limits plant growth and development. Adaptive mechanisms have evolved to mitigate drought stress, including the capacity to adjust water loss rate and to modify the morphology and structure of the epidermis. Here, we show that the expression of CmNF‐YB8, encoding a nuclear factor Y (NF‐Y) B‐type subunit, is lo...

The KNOTTED1‐LIKE HOMEOBOX PROTEIN1 (KD1) gene is highly expressed in flower and leaf abscission zones (AZs), and KD1 was reported to regulate tomato flower pedicel abscission via alteration of the auxin gradient and response in the flower AZ (FAZ). The present work was aimed to further examine how KD1 regulates signaling factors and regulatory gen...

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are unstable reactive molecules that are toxic to cells. Regulation of ROS homeostasis is crucial to protect cells from dysfunction, senescence and death. In plant leaves, ROS are mainly generated from chloroplasts and are tightly temporally restricted by the circadian clock. However, little is known about how ROS home...

Abscission is a tightly regulated developmental process that initiates in response to endogenous and environmental cues. In an agricultural context, regulation of abscission has substantial effects on crop productivity and quality. Crop domestication often selected against abscission of the fruit, allowing easier harvesting. A better understanding...

Developmental transitions in plants require adequate carbon resources, and organ abscission often occurs due to competition for carbohydrates/assimilates. Physiological studies have indicated that organ abscission may be activated by sucrose deprivation; however, an underlying regulatory mechanism that links sucrose transport to organ shedding has...

Drought is an environmental factor that can severely influence plant development and distribution, and greatly affect the yield and economic value of crops. We characterized CmBBX19 , a BBX family subgroup IV member gene, from the transcriptome database of Chrysanthemum morifolium in response to drought stress. Drought stress and ABA treatments dow...

Petal senescence involves numerous programmed changes in biological and biochemical processes. Ubiquitination plays a critical role in protein degradation, a hallmark of organ senescence. Therefore, we investigated changes in the proteome and ubiquitome of senescing rose (Rosa hybrida) petals to better understand their involvement in petal senescen...

Background The KNOTTED1-LIKE HOMEOBOX PROTEIN1 ( KD1 ) gene is highly expressed in flower and leaf abscission zones (AZs). RNA-antisense silencing of KD1 was shown to delay tomato pedicel and petiole abscission, induced by flower or leaf removal, respectively. KD1 was found to regulate flower pedicel abscission via alteration of auxin gradient thro...

The timing of plant organ abscission is modulated by the balance of two hormones, ethylene and auxin, while the mechanism of organ shedding depends on the loss of middle lamella pectin in the abscission zone (AZ). However, the mechanisms involved in sensing the balance of auxin and ethylene, and that affect pectin degradation during abscission, are...

The Tomato Hybrid Proline-rich Protein (THyPRP) gene was specifically expressed in the tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) flower abscission zone (FAZ), and its stable antisense silencing under the control of an abscission zone (AZ)-specific promoter, Tomato Abscission Polygalacturonase4, significantly inhibited tomato pedicel abscission following flower...

In rose (Rosa hybrida), flower senescence is accelerated by ethylene and delayed by cytokinins (CTKs). However, the effectors that regulate these processes are not currently understood. In this study, we identified an APETALA2/ethylene-responsive factor (AP2/ERF) gene, RhERF113, which was induced by ethylene and upregulated during flower senescence...

Flowers are highly complex organs that have evolved to enhance the reproductive success of angiosperms. As a key component of flowers, petals play a vital role in attracting pollinators and ensuring successful pollination. Having fulfilled this function, petals senesce through a process that involves many physiological and biochemical changes that...

Age, as a threshold of floral competence acquisition, prevents precocious flowering when there is insufficient biomass, and ensures flowering independent of environmental conditions; however, the underlying regulatory mechanisms are largely unknown. In this study, silencing the expression of a nuclear factor gene, CmNF-YB8, from the short day plant...

In many plant species, including rose (Rosa hybrida), flower senescence is promoted by the gaseous hormone, ethylene, and inhibited by cytokinin (CTK) class of hormones. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying these antagonistic effects are not well understood. In this current study, we characterized the association between a pathogenesis rela...

Roses are one of the most important cut flowers among ornamental plants. Rose flower longevity is largely dependent on the timing of petal shedding occurrence. To understand the molecular mechanism underlying petal abscission in rose, we performed transcriptome profiling of the petal abscission zone during petal shedding using Illumina technology....

Pathways of differentially transcribed genes.

Differentially transcribed transcription factor.

Differentially transcribed genes.

Differentially transcribed genes related to hormones.

Rose seedling for virus-induced gene silencing.

Length distribution of rose petal abscission zone unique transcripts.

The primer list.

Correlation coefficients of transcriptome profiles among RNA-Seq samples.

The woody resurrection plant Myrothamnus flabellifolia has remarkable tolerance to desiccation. Pyro-sequencing technology permitted us to analyze the transcriptome of M. flabellifolia during both dehydration and rehydration. We identified a total of 8287 and 8542 differentially transcribed genes during dehydration and rehydration treatments respec...

The response of plants to drought stress includes reduced transpiration as stomates close in response to increased abscisic acid (ABA) concentrations. Constitutive overexpression of 9-cis-epoxycarotenoid dioxygenase (NCED), a key enzyme in ABA biosynthesis, increases drought resistance, but causes negative pleiotropic effects on plant growth and de...

KD1, a gene encoding a KNOTTED1-LIKE HOMEOBOX protein, is highly expressed in both leaf and flower abscission zones. Reducing abundance of transcripts of this gene in tomato, both by virus induced gene silencing and by stable transformation with a silencing construct driven by an abscission-specific promoter, resulted in a striking retardation of p...

Flowering time and an ability to tolerate abiotic stresses are important for plant growth and development. We characterized BBX24, a zinc finger transcription factor gene, from Chrysanthemum morifolium and found it to be associated with both flowering time and stress tolerance. Transgenic lines with suppressed expression of Cm-BBX24 (Cm-BBX24-RNAi)...

Previously we reported that expression of the Arabidopsis DREB1A gene in chrysanthemum conferred increased tolerance to low-temperature and dehydration stresses, and that transgenic plants in which the DREB1A gene was driven by the abiotic stress-inducible promoter, rd29A, were more tolerant than those plants in which the DREB1A gene was driven by...

We isolated 13 DREB1 (dehydration responsive element binding factor 1) genes from chrysanthemum and further divided them into three groups, DgDREB1A, DgDREB1B and DgDREB1C, based on the phylogenetic analysis. Each group showed their unique expression patterns under cold, dehydration and salt stress conditions. Arabidopsis plants overexpressing DgDR...

The effect of over-expression of AtDREB1A gene in chrysanthemums on heat stress tolerance was investigated. Transgenic plants with 35S:AtDREB1A construct (henceforth, 35S plants) and wild type (WT) plants were exposed to 45 degrees C as a heat stress treatment. When heat-treated for 36 h and followed by a 3-week recovery, approximately 70% of the 3...