Functional and evolutionary analyses of Primulina heterotricha CYC1C gene in tobacco and Arabidopsis transformation systems

In Asterids, specific expression of CYC-like genes in the corresponding regions promotes or reduces dorsal petal growth and aborts stamen development. In Rosids, however, the reduced or enlarged dorsal petals are not accompanied by the abortion of stamens, which implies that the function of CYC-like genes in regulating petal growth and stamen development might be independently recruited. To address this, we investigated the function of the PhCYC1C gene in Primulina heterotricha Y. Dong & Y. Z. Wang on petal growth and stamen development by overexpressing it in two different transformation systems, that is, Arabidopsisbelonging to Rosids and tobacco located in Asterids. The results showed that overexpression of PhCYC1C reduced petal sizes in both tobacco and Arabidopsistransgenic plants mainly by repressing cell expansion, indicating its conserved function in determining petal growth between Asterids and Rosids. However, the fertility of both tobacco and Arabidopsis stamens was not affected at all. Given that strong expression signals of PhCYC1C are detected in both tobacco andArabidopsis stamens and CYC-like genes actually function to repress stamen development in Lamiales, we suggest that the CYC-like gene-associated regulatory network for controlling stamen development might have not established in Rosids as well as in early evolution of Asterids, but evolved as Asterids proceeded further. Our results provide valuable information on the conservation of CYC-like genes' function in controlling corolla asymmetry and the divergence of their function in determining stamen abortion in angiosperms.