Characterization of two flowering gene homologues from Lolium perenne

Abstract

Lolium perenne (perennial ryegrass) is a primary source of fodder for grazing cattle and is therefore of significant agricultural and economic importance. Understanding the flowering process in this species may help to develop, through transgenic approaches or breeding programs, a strain of grass that is better suited to the demands of modem agriculture. A large body of evidence is available suggesting that the genetic pathways controlling the induction of flowering are conserved among the higher plants. Based on this premise homologues of the GIGANTEA (GI) gene, involved in the long-day floral induction and the INDETERMINATE (ID) gene, a putative meristem identity gene were identified by bioinformatical approaches in various species. A multiple sequence alignment of both GI and ID identified regions within the genes showed near perfect nucleotide identity. This enabled primers to be designed to amplify homologous probes for both genes from L. perenne genomic DNA