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Isolation and Characterization of Three MADS-box Genes from Alpinia hainanensis (Zingiberaceae)

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Abstract

Three complementary DNA clones, AhMADS5, AhMADS6, and AhMADS8 were isolated from the young inflorescences of Alpinia hainanensis. Sequence comparisons and phylogenetic analyses indicated that AhMADS5 and AhMADS8 are highly homologous to AP3 and PI family, respectively, and AhMADS6 is an AG homologue. In situ hybridization analyses showed that AhMADS5 and AhMADS8 genes are expressed in the second and third whorls, whereas, the AhMADS6 signal is present in the third and fourth whorls. The expression patterns of AhMADS5, AhMADS8, and AhMADS6 genes are very similar to those of AP3-, PI-, and AG-like genes in other plant species, respectively. These results suggest that while AhMADS5 and AhMADS8 belong to the B-class MADS-box gene family, AhMADS6 belongs to a different category, the C-class MADS-box gene family. Present studies strongly support the hypothesis that the labellum of A. hainanensis originated from stamens.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Dr. Zhong Zhao and Dr. Zhicheng Dong of Shanghai Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology for providing excellent technical assistance. We also thank Ms. Yongmei Xia of Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden for her assistance in this research. We thank Dr. Pu Zou, Mr. Yuhua Yu, and Mr. Yushi Ye of South China Botanical Garden for help in plant tissue collection and photo taking. Furthermore, we like to thank Professor Qigen Wu and Beijian Mei for their help on the revision of this manuscript.

This research was supported by grants for systematic and evolutionary biology, from Chinese Academy of Sciences, National Natural Science Foundation of China (39870087, 30370099, 40332021), National Key Program for Basic Research of China (2001CCA00300) and China postdoctoral Science Foundation (20090450891).

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  1. South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Science, Guangzhou, 510650, China

    Juan-Juan Song, Yuan-Jiang Tang, Zhong-Yi Chen & Jing-Ping Liao

  2. Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai, 200240, China

    Wei Ma

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Song, JJ., Ma, W., Tang, YJ. et al. Isolation and Characterization of Three MADS-box Genes from Alpinia hainanensis (Zingiberaceae). Plant Mol Biol Rep 28, 264–276 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11105-009-0147-7

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