Identifying Eucalyptus expressed sequence tags related to Arabidopsis flowering-time pathway genes

Abstract

Flowering initiation depends on the balanced expression of a complex network of genes that is regulated by both endogenous and environmental factors. The timing of the initiation of flowering is crucial for the reproductive success of plants; therefore, they have developed conserved molecular mechanisms to integrate both environmental and endogenous cues to regulate flowering time precisely. Extensive advances in plant biology are possible now that the complete genome sequences of flowering plants is available and plant genomes can be comprehensively compared. Thus, association studies are emerging as powerful tools for the functional identification of genes involved on the regulation of flowering pathways. In this paper we report the results of our search in the Eucalyptus Genome Sequencing Project Consortium (FORESTS) database for expressed sequence tags (ESTs) showing sequence homology with known elements of flowering-time pathways. We have searched the 33,080 sequence clusters in the FORESTS database and identified Eucalyptus sequences that codify putative conserved elements of the autonomous, vernalization-, photoperiod response- and gibberellic acid-controlled flowering-time pathways. Additionally, we have characterized in silico ten putative members of the Eucalyptus homologs to the Arabidopsis CONSTANS family of transcription factors.