Evolutionary Insights and Flowering Regulation of SPLs in Coconut Palm

<i>Squamosa Promoter-Binding Protein Like</i> (<i>SPL</i>) is a critical transcription factor that plays a significant role in regulating plant growth and development. Mining the coconut SPL family offers valuable insights into the regulation of important agronomic traits, including the length of the juvenile phase. In this study, 25 <i>CnSPLs</i> were identified and were classified into eight subfamilies. Analysis of gene structure and conserved protein motifs indicated a high conservation of <i>CnSPLs</i> within the same subfamilies; however, variations in protein structure and gene length were observed across different subfamilies. Gene expansion analysis indicated that most gene members within subfamilies originated from duplications of the same genomic segment, and transposable element insertion contributed to the divergence of gene sequences within these subfamilies. Characterization of the miR156 target sequence in SPL transcripts revealed that subfamilies IV to VIII contained these sequences, while subfamilies I to III did not. In both coconut and 14 other plant species, some <i>SPLs</i> lost their miR156-binding loci due to gene structure variations. The gene expression profiles revealed significant divergence between miR156-targeted and non-targeted <i>CnSPLs</i>; the former exhibited low expression levels in the endosperm, while the latter showed comparable expression across all tissues. Notably, <i>CnSPL15A</i> demonstrated steadily increasing expression levels in leaves throughout successive leaf primordia and significantly promoted flowering when overexpressed in Arabidopsis. Transient expression assays and 5' RACE confirmed that <i>CnSPLs</i> are targeted by miR156. This study establishes a foundation for investigating the evolutionary characteristics of <i>CnSPLs</i> and provides a theoretical framework for analyzing the functions of key <i>CnSPLs</i> involved in the coconut flowering control pathway.