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Isolation and expression analysis of a LEAFY/FLORICAULA homolog and its promoter from London plane (Platanus acerifolia Willd.)

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Abstract

The LEAFY/FLORICAULA (LFY/FLO) homologous genes are necessary for normal flower development in diverse angiosperm species. To understand the genetic and molecular mechanisms underlying floral initiation and development in Platanaceae, an early divergent eudicot family consisting of large monoecious trees, we isolated a homolog of LFY/FLO, PlacLFY, and its promoter from London plane (Platanus acerifolia). PlacLFY is 1,419 bp in length, with an ORF of 1,122 bp encoding a predicted polypeptide of 374 amino acids and 5′/3′-UTR of 54 and 213 bp, respectively. The putative PlacLFY protein showed a high degree of identity (56–84 %) with LFY/FLO homologs from other species, including two highly conserved regions, the N and C domains, and a less conserved amino-terminal proline-rich region. Real-time PCR analysis showed that PlacLFY was expressed mainly in male inflorescences from May of the first year to March of next year, with the highest expression level in December, and in female inflorescences from June to April of next year. PlacLFY mRNA was also detected strongly in subpetiolar buds of December from 4-year-old and adult trees, and slightly in stem of young seedling and young leaf of adult plant. Additionally, we cloned 1,138 bp promoter sequence of PlacLFY and we drove GUS expression in transgenic tobacco by the chimerical pPlacLFY::GUS construction. Histological GUS staining analysis indicated that PlacLFY promoter can drive GUS gene expression in shoot apex, stem, young leaf and petiole, flower stalk, petal tip, and young/semi-mature fruits of transgenic tobacco, which is almost identical to the expression pattern of PlacLFY in London plane. The results revealed that the PlacLFY gene isolated from London plane is expressed not only in reproductive organ but also in vegetative organs. Moreover, this expression pattern is consistent with the expression pattern in tobacco of a GUS reporter gene under the control of the potential promoter region of PlacLFY.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported financially by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (30500394 and 30871729), the Doctoral Program Foundation of Ministry of Education of China (20100146110018), the Natural Science Foundation of Hubei Province (2008CDB095), and the Youth Chenguang Project of Science and Technology of Wuhan City (200950431180). We thank all colleagues in our laboratory for discussions and technical assistance.

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  1. Zhineng Li

    Present address: Key Laboratory of Plant Germplasm Enhancement and Specialty Agriculture, Wuhan Botanical Garden, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430074, People’s Republic of China

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  1. Key Laboratory of Horticultural Plant Biology, Ministry of Education, College of Horticulture and Forestry Sciences, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, People’s Republic of China

    Shunjiao Lu, Zhineng Li, Jiaqi Zhang, Shuangshuang Yi, Lei Liu, Manzhu Bao & Guofeng Liu

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Communicated by S. Merkle.

S. Lu and Z. Li contributed equally to this paper.

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Lu, S., Li, Z., Zhang, J. et al. Isolation and expression analysis of a LEAFY/FLORICAULA homolog and its promoter from London plane (Platanus acerifolia Willd.). Plant Cell Rep 31, 1851–1865 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-012-1299-8

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