ISOLATION AND EXPRESSION ANALYSIS OF THREE FLOWERING RELATED GENES OF CULTIVATED STRAWBERRY

Flowering is important for the production of strawberry, but its molecular mechanism is not clear now. To investigate the molecular mechanism of flowering induction in octoploid strawberry, we isolated and analyzed three important flowering related genes (FaLFY, FaAP1 and FaTFL1) from cultivated strawberry ‘Huaji’. Partial sequences of these three genes were isolated with PCR and their expression roles in different tissues and organs of strawberry were detected. The deduced amino acids of FaLFY showed the highest degree of similarity to its homologue in Rosa lucieae (93%), FaAP1 showed the highest degree of similarity to its homologue in Eriobotrya japonica (88%) and FaTFL1 showed the highest degree of similarity to its homologue in Fragaria vesca (99%). FaLFY expression mainly detected in the reproductive tissues, FaAP1 expression mainly detected in the reproductive tissues and partially in floral organs, and FaTLF1 expression mainly detected both in the reproductive tissues and young vegetative tissues. These results suggested that all these three genes may be involved in the flowering process of strawberry.