Open Access

ARTICLE

Comparative Analyses of Physiological and Transcriptomic Responses Reveal Chive (Allium ascalonicum L.) Bolting Tolerance Mechanisms

Siyang Ou¹, Liuyan Yang¹, Tingting Yuan¹, Mutong Li¹, Guohui Liao², Wanping Zhang¹, Guangdong Geng^1,*, Suqin Zhang^1,*

1 Department of Horticulture, College of Agriculture, Guizhou University, Guiyang, 550025, China
2 Plant Protection Institute, Guizhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Guiyang, 550025, China

* Corresponding Authors: Guangdong Geng. Email: ; Suqin Zhang. Email:

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany 2025, 94(8), 2441-2460. https://doi.org/10.32604/phyton.2025.068368

Received 27 May 2025; Accepted 18 July 2025; Issue published 29 August 2025

Abstract

Chive (Allium ascalonicum L.), a seeding-vernalization-type vegetable, is prone to bolting. To explore the physiological and molecular mechanisms of its bolting, bolting-prone (‘BA’) and bolting-resistant (‘WA’) chives were sampled at the vegetative growth, floral bud differentiation, and bud emergence stages. No bolting was observed in bolting-resistant ‘WA’ on the 130th day after planting, whereas the bolting reached 39.22% in bolting-prone ‘BA’, which was significantly higher than that of ‘WA’. The contents of gibberellins, abscisic acid, and zeatin riboside after floral bud differentiation in ‘WA’ were significantly less than in ‘BA’, whereas the indoleacetic acid content in ‘WA’ was significantly higher than that in ‘BA’ before and after floral bud differentiation. The soluble sugar content and nitrate reductase activity in ‘BA’ were significantly higher than those in ‘WA’ before and during floral bud differentiation periods. However, they were significantly lower in ‘BA’ compared with in ‘WA’ after bolting due to the nutrient consumption required by reproductive growth. A transcriptome analysis determined that the differentially expressed genes related to bolting tolerance were enriched in the terms ‘photoperiodism, flowering’, ‘auxin-activated signaling pathway’, ‘gibberellic acid mediated signaling pathway’, and ‘carbohydrate metabolic process’, and this was generally consistent with the physiological data. Additionally, 12 key differentially expressed genes (including isoform_203018, isoform_481005, isoform_716975, and isoform_564877) related to bolting tolerance were investigated. This research provides new information for breeding bolting-tolerant chives.

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Supplementary Material

Supplementary Material File

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