title: The expression of floral organ identity genes in contrasting water lily cultivars.
abstract: The floral organs of typical eudicots such as Arabidopsis thaliana are arranged in four characteristic whorls, namely the sepal, petal, stamen and carpel, and the "ABC" floral organ identity model has been based on this arrangement. However, the floral organs in most basal angiosperms are spirally arranged with a gradual transition from the inside to outside, and an alternative model referred to as "fading borders" was developed to take account of this. The flower morphology of the water lily was tested against the "fading borders" model by determining the expression profile of the six primary floral organ identity genes AP2, AGL6, AP3, PI, AG and SEP1 in two cultivars showing contrasting floral morphology. In addition, to get accurate floatation of the genes expression level from outer to inner, we divided the floral organs into eight whorls according to morphological features. All these genes were expressed throughout all whorls of the flower, but their expression level changed gradually from the outside of the flower to its inside. This pattern was consistent with the "fading borders" model.
authors.affiliation: College of Horticulture, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, 210095, Jiangsu, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Huolin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.forename: Sumei
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Jiafu
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Fadi
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Nianjun
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Teng
authors.forename: Dongmei
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.forename: Changbing
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Huang
mesh_terms: D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D035264:Flowers / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000235:genetics*; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D017343:Genes, Plant; D030721:Nymphaea / Q000235:genetics*; D010802:Phylogeny; D018749:RNA, Plant / Q000235:genetics; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D018749:RNA, Plant