Molecular Mechanism of Vegetative Growth Advantage in Allotriploid Populus

Allotriploid poplar has a prominent vegetative growth advantage that impacts dramatically on lumber yield. The growth regulation is complex which involves abundant genes, metabolic and signaling pathways, while the information about the functional control process is very little. We used high-throughput sequencing and physiological index measurement to obtain a global overview of differences between allotriploid and diploid Populus. The genes related to plant growth advantage show a higher expression compared to diploid, and most of them are revolved around hormones, photosynthesis and product accumulation. Thus, allotriploid Populus showed more efficient photosynthesis, carbon fixation, sucrose and starch synthesis, and metabolism as well as augmented biosynthesis of auxin, cytokinin, and gibberellin. These data enable the connection of metabolic processes, signaling pathways, and specific gene activity, which will underpin the development of network models to elucidate the process of triploid Populus advantage growth.