Alternate bearing in 'Hass' avocado – Fruit load-induced changes in bud auxin homeostasis are associated with flowering repression

Abstract

Abstract In 'Hass' avocado (Persea americana), fruit presence reduces next season flowering. Recent fruit tree studies proposed that heavy fruit load (HFL) generates an auxin (IAA) signal in the buds, which represses flowering. However, the nature of this signal remains unknown. Here, we investigated the effect of avocado HFL on bud IAA accumulation and flowering transition. We found that IAA-aspartate and IAA-glutamate conjugate levels were significantly higher in buds from 'on' (fully loaded) than 'off' (low-loaded) trees, hinting that free IAA levels were higher in the former. Expression analysis showed that coinciding with flowering reduction, HFL induced the floral repressor PaTFL1, and suggested that accumulation of IAA in buds as imposed by HFL was associated with its conjugation to aspartate and glutamate and resulted both from de novo IAA synthesis, as well as from reduced IAA export. Accordingly, experiments involving radiolabelled 14C-IAA demonstrated that HFL reduced shoot basipetal IAA transport. Lastly, we confirmed the negative effects of IAA on flowering, showing that IAA and PAT blocker (TIBA) treatments delayed 'off' trees inflorescence development, reducing their inflorescence axis and inducing PaTFL1 transcript. Together, our data suggest that avocado HFL generates IAA signalling in buds that induces PaTFL1, which represses inflorescence development.