Cloning and expression analysis of a partial LEAFY homologue from pineapple (<i>Ananas comosus</i> (L.) Merr.)

Abstract

LEAFY-like genes are crucial regulators of flowering in angiosperms. A partial homologue of LEAFY, designated as AcLFY (Genebank accession no HQ433335), was isolated from pineapple (Ananas comosus L. cv. Comte de Paris) by PCR. The conserved cDNA fragment of AcLFY is 256 bp in length and contained an open reading frame of 248 bp, which encodes 82 amino acids protein. The amino acid alignment showed that AcLFY had a high identity with the related fragment of PhalLFY in Phalaenopsis hybrid cultivar (91%), LFY in Oncidium (90%) and OrcLFY in Orchis italica (88%). RT-PCR analysis showed that the AcLFY could be expressed constitutionally. Moreover, it was expressed in the flesh of young fruit and bract at low levels, and was highly expressed in the fruit, stem, petal and sepal.

Key words: Pineapple, cloning, expression, RT-PCR, LEAFY.