Growth and Gene Expression Related to Bulb Development and Day-length Responses in Onion Cultivars During Overwinter Cultivation

Onion (Allium cepa L.) is one of the most important vegetable crops in the world, and its cultivation is roughly divided into two types: autumn- (overwinter) and spring-sowing. In this study, we compared the changes in plant growth and bulb development of four short-day and intermediate-day onion cultivars under two years of varying environmental conditions to understand autumn-sowing cultivation and growth characteristics. A comparison of the growth parameters of the four cultivars throughout the growth period revealed that the increase in total leaf number and area, and plant height were almost completely inhibited in winter. In spring, these growth parameters increased rapidly in the early maturing cultivars and reached a plateau depending on the cultivar’s maturity type, as previously shown in spring-sowing cultivation. It is known that AcFT1 and AcFT4 play a key role in the bulb development of cultivated onions. Therefore, we conducted expression analysis of these genes for the four cultivars grown in the field and confirmed that AcFT1 was expressed following the maturity, irrespective of cultivation methods. We also analyzed AcGI expression in leaf blades, and a certain relationship between changes in bulb development and AcGI expression was observed. Correlation analysis of AcFT1 expression and total leaf number and area was conducted, and strong positive correlations were observed. In conclusion, our study demonstrated genetically that leaf number and area are important for inducing onion bulb development.