Isolation and Characterization of the PISTILLATA Ortholog Gene from Cymbidium faberi Rolfe

<i>Cymbidium faberi</i> Rolfe is a very popular potted plant in China, Japan and Korea where it has been cultivated for centuries. The economic value of this popular native Asian orchid could be enhanced by changes in its floral traits. In <i>Arabidopsis</i>, <i>PISTILLATA</i> (<i>PI</i>) is involved in regulating petal and stamen development. In order to investigate the possible role of the <i>PI</i> ortholog involved in floral development, we isolated <i>CyfaPI</i> from <i>C. faberi.</i> Protein alignment and a phylogenetic tree grouped CyfaPI in the PI lineage. <i>CyfaPI</i> transcripts were detected in all floral organs, but were absent in leaves. Moreover, in flowers, the highest expression level of <i>CyfaPI</i> was present in the gynostemium and the lowest level was found in anther caps. In addition, ectopic expression of <i>CyfaPI</i> in <i>Arabidopsis pi-1</i> mutant rescued petal development, and complement the development of filament-like structure (part of stamen), but failed to complement anther development in the stamen whorl. All these finding suggest that <i>CyfaPI</i> is mainly responsible for perianth and gynostemium development in <i>C. faberi</i>. Our data may help to trace the development of the gynostemium program and evolution in orchids.

Abstract licence: CC BY

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