Spatial and temporal expression of the orchid floral homeotic gene DOMADS1 is mediated by its upstream regulatory regions

Abstract

The orchid floral homeotic gene, DOMADS1, is a marker gene specifically expressed in the transitional shoot apical meristem during floral transition in Dendrobium Madame Thong-In. DOMADS1 is not detectable in vegetative tissues except a weak expression in the stem. Its transcript is uniformly localized in both of the inflorescence meristem and floral primordia, and later expressed in almost all of the floral organs. We isolated and sequenced a 3.5 kb DOMADS1 promoter fragment upstream of the transcription start site, demonstrating the location of several putative DNA-binding sites, through which MADS-box and class 1 knox genes may modulate the DOMADS1 expression. To gain insight into the molecular basis of the regulation of DOMADS1, deletion analysis of the DOMADS1