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Isolation of LEAFY and TERMINAL FLOWER 1 homologues from six fruit tree species in the subfamily Maloideae of the Rosaceae

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Abstract

Flowering is an essential stage of fruit production. To understand the molecular mechanisms controlling flowering in maloid fruit tree species, we isolated and analyzed genes homologous to Arabidopsis LEAFY (LFY; flower meristem identity gene) and TERMINAL FLOWER 1 (TFL1; inflorescence meristem identity gene) from six fruit tree species in the subfamily Maloideae of the Rosaceae; apple (Malus × domestica), Japanese pear (Pyrus pyrifolia), European pear (Pyrus communis), quince (Cydonia oblonga), Chinese quince (Chaenomeles sinensis), and loquat (Eriobotrya japonica). Two LFY homologues and two TFL1 homologues were cloned from all six maloid species by rapid amplification of 3′ and 5′ cDNA ends, reverse transcription-PCR, and PCR with genomic DNA. Phylogenetic analysis by the neighbor-joining method showed that the two LFY homologues and two TFL1 homologues were classified into two distinct clades. The presence of multiple copies of LFY and TFL1 homologues is discussed with reference to the polyploid origin of the subfamily Maloideae.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a Grant-in-Aid (no. 14656014) for Exploratory Research to R.T. from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. We gratefully acknowledge the gift of plant material from K. Banno and T. Minemura of Shinshu University (Nagano, Japan).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Pomology, Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University, Kyoto, 606-8502, Japan

    Tomoya Esumi, Ryutaro Tao & Keizo Yonemori

Authors
  1. Tomoya Esumi
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  2. Ryutaro Tao
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  3. Keizo Yonemori
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ryutaro Tao.

Additional information

The nucleotide sequence data reported here are available in the DDBJ/EMBL/GenBank database under the accession numbers AB162028 (AFL1-fuji), AB162029 (PpLFY-1), AB162030 (PcLFY-1), AB162031 (CoLFY-1), AB162032 (CsLFY-1), AB162033 (EjLFY-1), AB162034 (AFL2-Fuji), AB162035 (PpLFY-2), AB162036 (PcLFY-2), AB162037 (CoLFY-2), AB162038 (CsLFY-2), AB162039 (EjLFY-2), AB162040 (MdTFL1-1), AB162041 (PpTFL1-1), AB162042 (PcTFL1-1), AB162043 (CoTFL1-1), AB162044 (CsTFL1-1), AB162045 (EjTFL1-1), AB162046 (MdTFL1-2), AB162047 (PpTFL1-2), AB162048 (PcTFL1-2), AB162049 (CoTFL1-2), AB162050 (CsTFL1-2), AB162051 (EjTFL1-2).

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Esumi, T., Tao, R. & Yonemori, K. Isolation of LEAFY and TERMINAL FLOWER 1 homologues from six fruit tree species in the subfamily Maloideae of the Rosaceae. Sex Plant Reprod 17, 277–287 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00497-004-0239-3

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