Molecular Analysis Associated with Early Flowering Mutant in Brassica napus

Flowering time in crops is an important agronomic character and is closely related to yield. However, the molecular mechanisms of flowering regulation in rapeseed remain elusive. In the current study, we report a rapeseed mutant with an early flowering (eaf) phenotype. The results of field observation showed that the flowering time of the mutant was about 18 days earlier than that of the wild type (WT, Zhongshuang 11), but there were no significant differences in other agronomic characters. Proteomic and transcriptomic analyses revealed that flowering and hormone-related proteins and genes were significantly differentially expressed between WT and eaf, indicating that the differential expression of flowering and hormone-related genes may be the main reason for early flowering in the mutant. Besides, the up-regulation of stress-related genes in the eaf mutant may be another possible reason of the mutant’s early flowering. Taken together, our findings provide a clue for dissecting the molecular mechanisms of early flowering in the mutant, and also potential materials for rapeseed molecular biology research.