植物LEAFY 同源基因的研究进展

本文就近10年来LEAFY(简写为LFY)同源基因的研究进展做了综合分析。通过对19种植物中已分离到的LFY同源基因的序列比较分析发现: LFY同源基因编码区核苷酸和氨基酸序列同源性都较高;在双子叶植物基因组中, 拷贝数却有所不同。该基因的表达特性显示其在不同植物中表达的时间和空间有所差异。根据已知序列推导的氨基酸序列构建的系统进化树表明, 单子叶植物与裸子植物的亲缘关系近于双子叶与裸子植物的亲缘关系。上述研究资料为植物成花机理研究提供了重要参考, 且在研究植物系统进化方面也具有重要的意义。     

早熟油菜成花相关基因LFY的克隆与分析

以甘蓝型油菜晚熟品种RG-8的早熟突变体RG-8M为材料,通过同源克隆法得到1个LEAFY(LFY)同源基因,命名为BnLFY。该基因cDNA全长为1 310bp,包含1个长为1 248bp的开放阅读框,编码415个氨基酸。序列分析表明,推测的氨基酸序列含双子叶植物LFY类蛋白特有的N端脯氨酸富集区、中央酸性区、亮氨酸拉链结构以及富含赖氨酸与精氨酸的碱性区;且与几种十字花科植物LFY类蛋白的氨基酸序列一致性均在84%以上。转录表达分析表明,BnLFY基因在油菜中为组成型表达。     

杧果LEAFY同源基因的分离及序列分析

分析在植物开花过程中起重要作用的LEAFY(LFY)基因的保守区序列,设计1对长度均为23bp的PCR引物,以杧果基因组DNA为模板,采用PCR方法扩增出长为822bp的DNA片段,克隆入pGEM-T Easy载体。测序和序列分析表明,获得了杧果LFY同源基因(miLFY)3’端的1个片段,该片段有1个415bp的内含子,编码区共编码135个氨基酸,其序列已经在GenBank中登记(登录号AY189684)。在GenBank中进行同源性检索,发现其氨基酸序列与其它植物LFY同源基因的氨基酸序列同源性高达74%~97%,推测它们具有相似的功能。     

荷花LEAFY基因的克隆及表达分析

LEAFY（LFY）基因是花分生组织形成的必需基因,在成花过程中发挥重要作用。本研究以荷花品种‘红霞满天’为材料,利用已经获得的荷花LFY基因片段,采用RT-PCR和RACE技术克隆得到荷花LFY基因cDNA序列,命名为NnLFY。NnLFY全长cDNA为1 494 bp,开放阅读框（ORF）为1 173 bp,编码390个氨基酸,预测其相对分子量为44 517.1 Da。与其他物种已知的LFY基因序列进行同源性对比分析并构建系统进化树,结果显示荷花LFY基因与甜瓜LFY基因的亲缘关系最近。实时荧光定量PCR结果表明,LFY基因在荷花幼叶期、花蕾期、盛花期的根、茎、叶、花中均有表达,其中,花蕾期各器官的表达量较高。     

LEAFY同源基因研究进展

LEAFY(LFY)同源基因存在于所有的陆生植物中,在植物花发育早期表达,并在花发育过程中抑制茎端分生组织的营养生长,调控花分生组织和花器官的形成,使转LFY基因植株提前开花,LFY同源基因与其上下游基因共同调控花发育过程.LFY同源基因的蛋白质结构在不同物种间保守性很高,但它们的表达部位差异很大.该文总结了近年来国内外已经克隆到的LFY同源基因的表达、功能及其在果树、花卉、粮食作物上的应用,以期为植物花发育的深入研究提供参考.     

植物CO基因研究进展

CO(constans)是植物开花时间光周期调控途径中的一个重要基因.目前从拟南芥、水稻、油菜、马铃薯等多个物种中都已经克隆到CO同源基因.CO基因在不同物种中具有保守的锌指结构和核定位区域,但是不同植物中的作用机理并不完全相同.序列分析表明该基因在被子植物与裸子植物之间、双子叶植物与单子叶植物之间以及不同科、属的植物之间均有明显分化,说明CO基因可能在植物进化中起到了重要作用.本文综述了近年来有关植物CO基因的研究进展,并对其在物种中的进化进行分析,为CO基因进一步研究提供参考.     

甘菊BADH基因cDNA的克隆及在盐胁迫下的表达

利用PCR、RT-PCR和PCR-RACE技术,从菊科植物甘菊(Dendranthema lavandulifolium)中克隆到2个甜菜碱醛脱氢酶(betaine aldehyde dehydrogenase,BADH)基因的同源基因,分别命名为DlBADH1和DlBADH2,GenBank登录号分别为DQ011151和DQ011152.DlBADH1的cDNA全长1821 bp,其开放阅读框编码503个氨基酸的蛋白质;DlBADH2全长1918 bp,编码506个氨基酸的蛋白质.两个基因核苷酸序列的同源性为97%,推导的氨基酸序列的同源性为98%.与已发表的其它植物BADH基因氨基酸序列的同源性在64%以上.在推导的氨基酸序列中,均含有醛脱氢酶所具有的高度保守的十肽(VTLELGGKSP)以及与酶功能有关的半胱氨酸残基(C).在推导的氨基酸序列的系统关系中,甘菊位于其它双子叶植物和单子叶植物之间,与其植物分类的系统关系相吻合.RT-PCR-Southern半定量表达分析表明,甘菊BADH基因家族中存在表达受盐诱导的成员.     

木质素生物合成酶CCR基因的生物信息学分析

肉桂酰辅酶A还原酶(Cinnamoyl-CoA reductase,CCR)是催化木质素特异途径的第一个关键酶,是调节碳素流向木质素潜在的控制关节点,对木质素单体的生物合成起着重要作用。通过NCBI数据库收集来自裸子植物、单子叶植物及双子叶植物的35条CCR基因的完整信息,对35条CCR基因的cDNA及其编码的氨基酸序列的进化规律、理化性质、结构域、导肽、信号肽、跨膜结构域、亲/疏水性以及蛋白质结构等性状进行了生物信息学分析与预测,构建了CCR基因的系统发育树。分析结果表明,单子叶植物CCR基因中GC的含量明显高于双子叶植物;CCR基因编码的氨基酸序列存在9个保守区域;所编码氨基酸的理化性质基本一致,但单子叶、双子叶及裸子植物的CCR基因编码主要氨基酸的种类和含量存在着差异;CCR蛋白的N-端存在一个脱氢酶/差向异构酶/辅酶Ⅰ结合蛋白的结构域,无导肽、信号肽及跨膜结构域,属亲水性蛋白;进化树绘制以及同源建模结果表明,CCR基因的进化和植物的进化基本一致,CCR蛋白三级结构模型的空间结构稳定,建模结果可靠。分析结果对于深入研究CCR蛋白在木质素合成中的作用具有一定的理论指导意义。     

利用简并引物克隆黑莓、树莓肌动蛋白基因片段及表达分析

采用同源克隆法,利用设计的一对肌动蛋白(actin)基因简并引物,从黑莓、树莓和悬钩子杂种3个悬钩子植物品种均得到一条743 bp的actin cDNA片段,推测编码247个氨基酸.序列比对发现,克隆的actin基因推导的氨基酸序列和其他植物的肌动蛋白氨基酸序列具有高度保守性,经数据库搜索后将来自黑莓和树莓品种的actin cDNA片段在GenBank中登录,登录号分别为HQ439558和HQ439559.不同来源的植物actin蛋白系统进化树的聚类结果表明,树莓和悬钩子杂种亲缘关系较为密切.actin基因在3个悬钩子植物品种不同组织中的RT-PCR分析结果表明,其在检测的不同组织中均有一定程度的表达量,可能都属于组成型表达的肌动蛋白基因.研究结果为利用actin基因作为内参进一步研究黑莓和树莓其他基因的丰度奠定基础.     

二氢黄酮醇4-还原酶基因(DFR)与花色的修饰

二氢黄酮醇4-还原酶(DFR)是花色素苷生化合成途径中的一个多种植物中分离到了DFR基因.文章介绍DFR同源基因的结构与时空表达特性、构建的系统进化树所体现的部分单子叶与双子叶植物间亲缘关系与进化差异以及DFR的转基因研究进展.     

Flowering of strict photoperiodic <Emphasis Type="Italic">Nicotiana</Emphasis> varieties in non-inductive conditions by transgenic approaches

The genus Nicotiana contains species and varieties that respond differently to photoperiod for flowering time control as day-neutral, short-day and long-day plants. In classical photoperiodism studies, these varieties have been widely used to analyse the physiological nature for floral induction by day length. Since key regulators for flowering time control by day length have been identified in Arabidopsis thaliana by molecular genetic studies, it was intriguing to analyse how closely related plants in the Nicotiana genus with opposite photoperiodic requirements respond to certain flowering time regulators. SUPPRESSOR OF OVEREXPRESSION OF CONSTANS 1 (SOC1) and FRUITFULL (FUL) are two MADS box genes that are involved in the regulation of flowering time in Arabidopsis. SOC1 is a central flowering time pathway integrator, whereas the exact role of FUL for floral induction has not been established yet. The putative Nicotiana orthologs of SOC1 and FUL, NtSOC1 and NtFUL, were studied in day-neutral tobacco Nicotiana tabacum cv Hicks, in short-day tobacco N. tabacum cv Hicks Maryland Mammoth (MM) and long-day N. sylvestris plants. Both genes were similarly expressed under short- and long-day conditions in day-neutral and short-day tobaccos, but showed a different expression pattern in N. sylvestris. Overexpression of NtSOC1 and NtFUL caused flowering either in strict short-day (NtSOC1) or long-day (NtFUL) Nicotiana varieties under non-inductive photoperiods, indicating that these genes might be limiting for floral induction under non-inductive conditions in different Nicotiana varieties.     

Nucleotide diversity of vernalization and flowering‐time‐related genes in a germplasm collection of meadow fescue (Festuca pratensis Huds. syn. Lolium pratense (Huds.) Darbysh.)

In plant species, control of flowering time is an important factor for adaptation to local natural environments. The Vrn1, CO, FT1 and CK2α genes are key components in the flowering‐specific signaling pathway of grass species. Meadow fescue is an agronomically important forage grass species, which is naturally distributed across Europe and Western Asia. In this study, meadow fescue flowering‐time‐related genes were resequenced to assess nucleotide diversity in European and Western Asian subpopulations. Identified sequence polymorphisms were then converted into PCR‐based molecular genetic markers, and a meadow fescue germplasm collection was genotyped to investigate global allelic variation. Lower nucleotide diversities were observed for the Vrn1 and CO orthologs, while relatively higher values were observed for the FT1 and casein kinase II α‐subunit (CK2α) orthologs. The nucleotide diversity for FT1 orthologs in the Western Asian subpopulation was significantly higher than those of the European subpopulation. Similarly, significant differences in nucleotide diversity for the remaining genes were observed between several combinations of subpopulation. The global allele distribution pattern was consistent with observed level of nucleotide diversity. These results suggested that the degree of purifying selection acting on the genes differs according to geographical location. As previously shown for model plant species, functional specificities of flowering‐time‐related genes may also vary according to environmental conditions.     

Genomic basis for cell-wall diversity in plants. A comparative approach to gene families in rice and Arabidopsis

Monocotyledons and dicotyledons are distinct, not only in their body plans and developmental patterns, but also in the structural features of their cell walls. The recent completion of the rice (Oryza sativa) genomic sequence and publication of the sequence data, together with the completed database of the Arabidopsis thaliana genome, provide the first opportunity to compare the full complement of cell-wall-related genes from the two distinct classes of flowering plants. We made this comparison by exploiting the fact that Arabidopsis and rice have type I and type II walls, respectively, and therefore represent the two extremes in terms of the structural features of plant cell walls. In this review article, we classify all cell-wall-related genes into 32 gene families, and generate their phylogenetic trees. Using these data, we can phylogenetically compare individual genes of particular interest between Arabidopsis and rice. This comparative genome approach shows that the differences in wall architecture in the two plant groups actually mirror the diversity of the individual gene families involved in the cell-wall dynamics of the respective plant species. This study also identifies putative rice orthologs of genes with well-defined functions in Arabidopsis and other plant species.     

Aa TFL1 confers an age-dependent response to vernalization in perennial Arabis alpina

Flowering of many plants is induced by environmental signals, but these responses can depend on the age of the plant. Exposure of Arabidopsis thaliana to vernalization (winter temperatures) at germination induces flowering, whereas a close perennial relative Arabis alpina only responds if exposed when at least 5 weeks old. We show that vernalization of these older A. alpina plants reduces expression of the floral repressor PEP1 and activates the orthologs of the Arabidopsis flowering genes SOC1 (Aa SOC1) and LFY (Aa LFY). By contrast, when younger plants are vernalized, PEP1 and Aa SOC1 mRNA levels change as in older plants, but Aa LFY is not expressed. We demonstrate that A. alpina TFL1 (Aa TFL1) blocks flowering and prevents Aa LFY expression when young plants are exposed to vernalization. In addition, in older plants, Aa TFL1 increases the duration of vernalization required for Aa LFY expression and flowering. Aa TFL1 has similar functions in axillary shoots, thus ensuring that following a flowering episode vegetative branches are maintained to continue the perennial life cycle. We propose that Aa TFL1 blocks flowering of young plants exposed to vernalization by setting a threshold for a flowering pathway that is increased in activity as the shoot ages, thus contributing to several perennial traits.     

The phytochrome gene family in grasses (Poaceae): a phylogeny and evidence that grasses have a subset of the loci found in dicot angiosperms

The phytochrome nuclear gene family encodes photoreceptor proteins that mediate developmental responses to red and far red light throughout the life of the plant. From studies of the dicot flowering plant Arabidopsis, the family has been modeled as comprising five loci, PHYA- PHYE. However, it has been shown recently that the Arabidopsis model may not completely represent some flowering plant groups because additional PHY loci related to PHYA and PHYB of Arabidopsis apparently have evolved independently several times in dicots, and monocot flowering plants may lack orthologs of PHYD and PHYE of Arabidopsis. Nonetheless, the phytochrome nucleotide data were informative in a study of organismal evolution because the loci occur as single copy sequences and appear to be evolving independently. We have continued our investigation of the phytochrome gene family in flowering plants by sampling extensively in the grass family. The phytochrome nuclear DNA data were cladistically analyzed to address the following questions: (1) Are the data consistent with a pattern of differential distribution of phytochrome genes among monocots and higher dicots, with homologs of PHYA, B, C, D, and E present in higher dicots, but of just PHYA, B, and C in monocots, and (2) what phylogenetic pattern within Poaceae do they reveal? Results of these analyses, and of Southern blot experiments, are consistent with the observation that the phytochrome gene family in grasses comprises the same subset of loci detected in other monocots. Furthermore, for studies of organismal phylogeny in the grass family, the data are shown to provide significant support for relationships that are just weakly resolved by other data sets.      

Conservation of Arabidopsis flowering genes in model legumes

The model plants Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) and rice (Oryza sativa) have provided a wealth of information about genes and genetic pathways controlling the flowering process, but little is known about the corresponding pathways in legumes. The garden pea (Pisum sativum) has been used for several decades as a model system for physiological genetics of flowering, but the lack of molecular information about pea flowering genes has prevented direct comparison with other systems. To address this problem, we have searched expressed sequence tag and genome sequence databases to identify flowering-gene-related sequences from Medicago truncatula, soybean (Glycine max), and Lotus japonicus, and isolated corresponding sequences from pea by degenerate-primer polymerase chain reaction and library screening. We found that the majority of Arabidopsis flowering genes are represented in pea and in legume sequence databases, although several gene families, including the MADS-box, CONSTANS, and FLOWERING LOCUS T/TERMINAL FLOWER1 families, appear to have undergone differential expansion, and several important Arabidopsis genes, including FRIGIDA and members of the FLOWERING LOCUS C clade, are conspicuously absent. In several cases, pea and Medicago orthologs are shown to map to conserved map positions, emphasizing the closely syntenic relationship between these two species. These results demonstrate the potential benefit of parallel model systems for an understanding of flowering phenology in crop and model legume species.     

Two FT orthologs from <Emphasis Type="Italic">Populus simonii</Emphasis> Carrière induce early flowering in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Arabidopsis</Emphasis> and poplar trees

Genes in the FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) family have been shown to be important in the control of the switch between vegetative and reproductive growth in several plant species. In this study, two FT orthologs were isolated from Populus simonii, a species indigenous to China and planted in North China as a shelterbelt. The orthologs were named PsFT1 and PsFT2. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the two genes belonged to the FT gene family. PsFT1 and PsFT2 control flowering initiation in response to day-length when ectopically expressed in transgenic Arabidopsis and transgenic juvenile poplar clone T89 plants. Moreover, when poplar T89 was transformed with PsFT1 or PsFT2, flowering was induced within 40 days. Subsequently, floral meristems emerged on the flanks of the axillary inflorescence shoots. These findings suggest that PsFT1 and PsFT2 are involved in the control of the timing of flowering in Populus simonii.