Isolation and characterization of the FVE gene of a Doritaenopsis hybrid involved in the regulation of flowering

Abstract

The FVE gene is considered a classical flowering time locus and affects flowering through the autonomous pathway. In this study, a FVE homologue gene was isolated from Doritaenopsis ‘Tinny Tender’ (Doritaenopsis Happy smile × Happy valentine) and designated as DhFVE. The full-length DhFVE cDNA was 1,856 bp with a 1,407 bp open reading frame and it encodes 468 amino acids. The putative DhFVE protein contained three conserved regions, one CAF1C_H4-bd region and two WD40 regions. Amino acid sequence alignment showed that DhFVE shares high similarity with FVE homologues from other species. Real-time quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction analysis showed that DhFVE is ubiquitously expressed in vegetative and reproductive organs. Its transcripts reached higher levels in the vegetative organs (roots, stems, and leaves) during the transition from vegetative to reproductive growth, whereas the stems showed the strongest expression. DhFVE was overexpressed in Arabidopsis and flowering of these transgenic plants were more delayed than in wild-type Arabidopsis by 2–3 days. The results indicate that DhFVE may play an important role in the regulation of flowering.