Cloning and functional analysis of RADIALIS-like 1 gene from Antirrhinum majus.

ABSTRACT

MYB is one of the largest transcription factor families in plants. Among them, the R3-MYB transcription factor RADIALIS (RAD) plays a very important role in the flowers development in Antirrhinum majus. In this study, a R3-MYB gene similar to RAD was found by analyzing the genome of A. majus, which was named AmRADIALIS-like 1 (AmRADL1). The gene function was predicted through bioinformatics. The relative expression levels in different tissues and organs of wild-type A. majus were analyzed by qRT-PCR. AmRADL1 was overexpressed in A. majus, and the transgenic plants were analyzed by morphological observation and histological staining. The results showed that the open reading frame (ORF) of AmRADL1 gene was 306 bp in length, encoding 101 amino acids. It has typical SANT domain, and the C-terminal contains a CREB motif, which was highly homologous to tomato SlFSM1. The results of qRT-PCR showed that AmRADL1 was expressed in roots, stems, leaves and flowers, and the expression level was higher in flowers. Further analysis of its expression in different floral organs showed that AmRADL1 had the highest expression in carpel. The results of histological staining analysis of the transgenic plants showed that compared with the wild type, although the size of the carpel cells of the transgenic plants did not change significantly, the placenta area in the carpel became smaller and the number of cell decreased. In summary, AmRADL1 may be involved in the regulation of carpel development, but the specific mechanism of action in carpel remains to be further studied.