biologia plantarum

Biologia plantarum 55:567-571, 2011 | DOI: 10.1007/s10535-011-0127-2

Isolation and characterization of two MADS-box genes from Lycium barbarum

S. H. Zeng^1,2, Y. Q. Xu³, Y. Wang^1,2,*

¹ Key Laboratory of Pant Germplasm Enhancement and Special Agriculture, Wuhan Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, Hubei, P.R. China

² Key Laboratory of Plant Resources Conservation and Sustainable Utilization, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, P.R. China

³ College of Pharmacy, Jiangxi University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Nanchang, Jiangxi, P.R. China

To broaden our knowledge of flower development, two floral homeotic genes, LbAG and LbSEP3, were isolated from the flower of Lycium barbarum L. The open reading frame length of LbAG and LbSEP3 were 1090 and 992 bp encoding 249 and 242 amino acids, respectively. Sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis indicated that LbAG belonged to C-type MADS-box gene and that LbSEP3 was E-type MADS-box gene. Compared with other floral homeotic proteins, LbAG held the conserved AG motif I, II and LbSEP3 conserved SEP3 motif I, II. Expression profile showed that LbAG transcripts were abundant in inner two whorls and fruit but not in root, leaf, sepal, and petal, and that LbSEP3 constitutively expressed in root, leaf, fruit, and all the four floral whorls.

Keywords: expression profile; floral whorls; open reading frame; PCR; RACE

Received: March 31, 2010; Accepted: May 3, 2010; Published: September 1, 2011  Show citation