title: Comprehensive analysis of the flowering genes in Chinese cabbage and examination of evolutionary pattern of CO-like genes in plant kingdom.
abstract: In plants, flowering is the most important transition from vegetative to reproductive growth. The flowering patterns of monocots and eudicots are distinctly different, but few studies have described the evolutionary patterns of the flowering genes in them. In this study, we analysed the evolutionary pattern, duplication and expression level of these genes. The main results were as follows: (i) characterization of flowering genes in monocots and eudicots, including the identification of family-specific, orthologous and collinear genes; (ii) full characterization of CONSTANS-like genes in Brassica rapa (BraCOL genes), the key flowering genes; (iii) exploration of the evolution of COL genes in plant kingdom and construction of the evolutionary pattern of COL genes; (iv) comparative analysis of CO and FT genes between Brassicaceae and Grass, which identified several family-specific amino acids, and revealed that CO and FT protein structures were similar in B. rapa and Arabidopsis but different in rice; and (v) expression analysis of photoperiod pathway-related genes in B. rapa under different photoperiod treatments by RT-qPCR. This analysis will provide resources for understanding the flowering mechanisms and evolutionary pattern of COL genes. In addition, this genome-wide comparative study of COL genes may also provide clues for evolution of other flowering genes.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Crop Genetics and Germplasm Enhancement/Key Laboratory of Biology and Germplasm Enhancement of Horticultural Crops in East China, Ministry of Agriculture, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China.|Center of Genomics and Computational Biology, College of Life Sciences, North China University of Science and Technology, Tangshan, Hebei 063000, China.
authors.forename: Xiaoming
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Song
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Crop Genetics and Germplasm Enhancement/Key Laboratory of Biology and Germplasm Enhancement of Horticultural Crops in East China, Ministry of Agriculture, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China.
authors.forename: Weike
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Duan
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Crop Genetics and Germplasm Enhancement/Key Laboratory of Biology and Germplasm Enhancement of Horticultural Crops in East China, Ministry of Agriculture, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China.
authors.forename: Zhinan
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Crop Genetics and Germplasm Enhancement/Key Laboratory of Biology and Germplasm Enhancement of Horticultural Crops in East China, Ministry of Agriculture, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China.
authors.forename: Gaofeng
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Crop Genetics and Germplasm Enhancement/Key Laboratory of Biology and Germplasm Enhancement of Horticultural Crops in East China, Ministry of Agriculture, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China.
authors.forename: Peng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Crop Genetics and Germplasm Enhancement/Key Laboratory of Biology and Germplasm Enhancement of Horticultural Crops in East China, Ministry of Agriculture, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China.
authors.forename: Tongkun
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Crop Genetics and Germplasm Enhancement/Key Laboratory of Biology and Germplasm Enhancement of Horticultural Crops in East China, Ministry of Agriculture, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China.
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Crop Genetics and Germplasm Enhancement/Key Laboratory of Biology and Germplasm Enhancement of Horticultural Crops in East China, Ministry of Agriculture, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China.
authors.forename: Xilin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Hou
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D029741:Brassica rapa / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D035264:Flowers / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D063990:Gene Ontology; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D005810:Multigene Family; D012275:Oryza / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development; D017440:Photoperiod; D010802:Phylogeny; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D040681:Structural Homology, Protein; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins; C092776:CONSTANS protein, Arabidopsis; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; C418905:FT protein, Arabidopsis; D014157:Transcription Factors