Cloning And Function Analysis Of STMADS11and FLC Subfamily Genes In Petunia

Petunia(Petunia hybrida) is a perennial species in the family Solanaceae, usually cultivated as annual flower. Petunia is widely used in landscaping of the city. It is also a kind of model plant in molecular biology research. The MADS-box genes are widely existed in plants and play an important role in the different development stage of plants.At present, the study of MADS-box family in petunia is concentrated on ABCDE genes.The function of most other MADS-box genes are not well known. STMADS11 subfamily and FLC subfamily belong to MADS-box family.STMADS11 subfamily is associated with vegetative growth and regulation of flowering time. FLC subfamily is affected by vernalization, but its function in other plants except some model plants such as Arabidopsis thaliana is still not clear.In this research, the focus is on the functions of STMADS11 and FLC gene family in petunia. We cloned STMADS11 subfamily gene FBP13, FBP25 and FLC subfamily gene PMADS6, PMADS15 and PMADS17, constructed vectors to transform petunia.Then we obtained transgenic plants and analyzed the phenotypes.The major results are as follows:(1) The gene sequences were obtained from petunia genome database and specific primers were designed for the amplification of FBP13, FBP25, PMADS6, PMADS15 and PMADS17. At last, we constructed overexpression vectors and RNA interference vectors of the five genes.(2) Transgenic plants were produced by Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of Petunia W115. The results are as follows: transgenic plants of overexpressing PMADS6,PMADS15, PMADS17, FBP13 and FBP25 are 4, 15, 5, 10 and 6, respectively. Transgenic plants for RNA interference vectors of PMADS6, PMADS15, PMADS17, FBP13 and FBP25 are 10, 11, 19, 9 and 14, respectively.(3) Vigorous growth and more branches were observed for FBP13 overexpression transgenic plant in the early seedling stage. The phenotype of PMADS15 overexpression plants is similar with that of FBP13 overexpression transgenic plants. Over expression and silencing of other genes phenotypes are consistent with the wild type.