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The AVAG1 gene is involved in development of reproductive organs in the ornamental asparagus, Asparagus virgatus

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Abstract

The AGAMOUS (AG)-like gene has been reported to be involved in the formation of the stamens and carpels. The genus Asparagus contains hermaphrodite and dioecious species, and analysis of the AG-like genes in these species may reveal how these different reproductive systems have evolved in this genus. We isolated one AG-like gene, designated AVAG1, from the ornamental hermaphrodite species Asparagus virgatus. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the AVAG1 gene is closely related to HAG1 from Hyacinthus and PeMADS1 from Phalaenopsis. Northern blot analysis showed that AVAG1 transcripts were detected in flower buds, but not in roots, stems or phylloclades. In situ hybridization analyses revealed that the AVAG1 mRNA is expressed specifically in the floral meristem and the developing reproductive organs. Early in flower development, expression of AVAG1 was restricted mainly to the stamens and carpels, with AVAG1 expression in the stamen disappearing at later stages of flower development, although it remained strong in the ovule.

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Acknowledgements

We wish to thank Professor H. Takahashi and Dr. M. Kamada (Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan) for their help and discussions regarding the in situ experiments. We also thank Dr. T. Ochiai (Tohoku University) for helpful discussions and Mr. H. Tokairin for his collaboration in culturing the plants. We are also grateful to Dr. T. Yamaguchi (Fukukaen Nursery & Bulb Co., Mie, Japan), Dr. K. Sudo (National Institute of Floricultural Science, Tsukuba, Japan) and Dr. T. Sonoda (Fukushima Agricultural Experiment Station, Koriyama, Japan) for providing seeds and/or plants of A. virgatus. This work was supported in part by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports Science and Technology, Japan.

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  1. Graduate School of Life Sciences, Tohoku University, Katahira 2–1–1, Aoba-ku, 980–8577, Sendai , Japan

    Pil-Yong Yun, Takuro Ito, So-Young Kim, Akira Kanno & Toshiaki Kameya

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  1. Pil-Yong Yun
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  2. Takuro Ito
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  3. So-Young Kim
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  4. Akira Kanno
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  5. Toshiaki Kameya
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Correspondence to Akira Kanno.

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The nucleotide sequence data of the cDNA reported in this paper has been deposited with the EMBL, GenBank and DDBJ nucleotide sequence databases under the accession number AB125347 (AVAG1)

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Yun, PY., Ito, T., Kim, SY. et al. The AVAG1 gene is involved in development of reproductive organs in the ornamental asparagus, Asparagus virgatus . Sex Plant Reprod 17, 1–8 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00497-004-0212-1

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