Abstract
Cymbidium faberi 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 Arabidopsis, PISTILLATA (PI) is involved in regulating petal and stamen development. In order to investigate the possible role of the PI ortholog involved in floral development, we isolated CyfaPI from C. faberi. Protein alignment and a phylogenetic tree grouped CyfaPI in the PI lineage. CyfaPI transcripts were detected in all floral organs, but were absent in leaves. Moreover, in flowers, the highest expression level of CyfaPI was present in the gynostemium and the lowest level was found in anther caps. In addition, ectopic expression of CyfaPI in Arabidopsis pi-1 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 CyfaPI is mainly responsible for perianth and gynostemium development in C. faberi. Our data may help to trace the development of the gynostemium program and evolution in orchids.
Highlights
Cymbidium faberi Rolfe is a very popular potted plant in several countries of East Asia, and has been cultivated for centuries in China, Japan and Korea
In flowers, the highest expression level of CyfaPI was present in the gynostemium and the lowest level was found in anther caps
Ectopic expression of CyfaPI in Arabidopsis pi-1 mutant rescued petal development, and complement the development of filament-like structure, but failed to complement anther development in the stamen whorl. All these finding suggest that CyfaPI is mainly responsible for perianth and gynostemium development in C. faberi
Summary
Cymbidium faberi Rolfe is a very popular potted plant in several countries of East Asia, and has been cultivated for centuries in China, Japan and Korea. Many artificially propagated varieties have been developed based on various flower traits including their color and number as well as the form of the perianth (sepal and petal). All of these elements contribute to the visual appreciation of orchids. The perianth is the most visually obvious structure, which is related to its primarily function as an optical attraction for pollinators. The perianth in monocots does not completely correspond to the obvious differentiation of sepal and petal whorls in model eudicots. The conserved function of the PISTILLATA (PI)/GLOBOSA (GLO) orthologs, such as MtPI from Medicago truncatula [3], TrPI from
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