Schmidt RJ et al. 1993
- Authors:
Schmidt RJ. Veit B. Mandel MA. Mena M. Hake S. Yanofsky MF.
- Title:
Identification and molecular characterization of ZAG1, the maize homolog
of the Arabidopsis floral homeotic gene AGAMOUS.
- Reference location:
Plant Cell. 5(7):729-37, 1993 Jul.
- Abstract:
Recent genetic and molecular studies in Arabidopsis and Antirrhinum
suggest that mechanisms controlling floral development are well conserved
among dicotyledonous species. To assess whether similar mechanisms also
operate in more distantly related monocotyledonous species, we have begun
to clone homologs of Arabidopsis floral genes from maize. Here we report
the characterization of two genes, designated ZAG1 and ZAG2 (for Zea AG),
that were cloned from a maize inflorescence cDNA library by low stringency
hybridization with the AGAMOUS (AG) cDNA from Arabidopsis. ZAG1 encodes a
putative polypeptide of 286 amino acids having 61% identity with the
AGAMOUS (AG) protein. Through a stretch of 56 amino acids, constituting
the MADS domain, the two proteins are identical except for two
conservative amino acid substitutions. The ZAG2 protein is less similar to
AG, with 49% identity overall and substantially less similarity than ZAG1
outside the well-conserved MADS domain. Like AG, ZAG1 RNA accumulates
early in stamen and carpel primordia. In contrast, ZAG2 expression begins
later and is restricted to developing carpels. Hybridization to genomic
DNA with the full-length ZAG1 cDNA under moderately stringent conditions
indicated the presence of a large family of related genes. Mapping data
using maize recombinant inbreds placed ZAG1 and ZAG2 near two loci that
are known to affect maize flower development, Polytypic ear (Pt) and
Tassel seed4 (Ts4), respectively. The ZAG1 protein from in vitro
translations binds to a consensus target site that is recognized by the AG
protein. These data suggest that maize contains a homolog of the
Arabidopsis floral identity gene AG and that this gene is conserved in
sequence and function.
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