Both bolting and flowering times influence taproot and seed production in radish. FLOWERING LOCUS C （FLC） plays a key role in plant flowering by functioning as a repressor. Two genomic DNA sequences, a 3 046-bp from an early- and a 2 959-bp from a late-bolting radish line were isolated and named as RsFLC1 and RsFLC2, respectively, for they share approximately 87.03% sequence identity to the FLC cDNA sequences. The genomic DNA sequences, 1 466-bp and 1 744-bp, flanking the 5＇-regions of RsFLC1 and RsFLC2, respectively, were characterized. Since both of them harbor the basic promoter elements, the TATA box and CAAT box, they were designated as PRsFLC1 and PRsFLC2. The transcription start site （TSS） was identified at 424 and 336 bp upstream of the start codon in PRsFLC1 and PRsFLC2, respectively, cis-regulatory elements including CGTCA （MeJA-responsive） and ABRE （abscisic acid-responsive） motifs were found in both promoters, while some cis-regulatory elements including TCAelement and GARE-motif were present only in PRsFLCI. These sequence differences lead to the diversity of promoter core elements, which could partially result in the difference of bolting and flowering time in radish line NauDY13 （early-bolting） and Naulu 127 （late-bolting）. Furthermore, to investigate the activity of these promoters, a series of 5＇-deletion fragment-GUS fusions were constructed and transformed into tobacco. GUS activity was detected in PRsFLCI-（1 to 4）-GUS-PSlaG-3 and PRsFLC2-（1 to 4）-GUS-PS1aG-3 transgenic tobacco leaf discs, and this activity progressively decreased from PRsFLC-1-GUS-PSlaG-3 to PRsFLC-5-GUS-PS1aG-3. Deletion analysis indicated that the cis-regulatory elements located at -395 bp to ＋1 bp may be critical for specifying RsFLC gene transcription.
Myrosinase is a defense-related enzyme and is capable of hydrolyzing glucosinolates into a variety of compounds, some of which are toxic to pathogens and herbivores. Many studies revealed that a number of important vegetables or oil crops contain the myrosinase-glucosinolate system. However, the related promoter and genomic DNA sequences as well as expression profiles of myrosinase gene remain largely unexplored in radish（Raphanus sativus）. In this study, the 2 798 bp genomic DNA sequence, designated as RsMyr2, was isolated and analyzed in radish. The RsMyr2 consisting of 12 exons and 11 introns reflected the common gene structure of myrosinases. Using the genomic DNA walking approach, the 5′-flanking region upstream of RsMyr2 with length of 1 711 bp was successfully isolated. PLACE and PlantCARE analyses revealed that this upstream region could be the promoter of RsMyr2, which contained several basic cis-regulatory elements including TATA-box, CAAT-box and regulatory motifs responsive to defense and stresses. Furthermore, recombinant pET-RsMyr2 protein separated by SDS-PAGE was identified as myrosinase with mass spectrometry. Real-time PCR analysis showed differential expression profiles of RsMyr2 in leaf, stem and root at different developmental stages（e.g., higher expression in leaf at cotyledon stage and lower in flesh root at mature stage）. Additionally, the RsMyr2 gene exhibited up-regulated expression when treated with abscisic acid（ABA）, methyl jasmonate（MeJA） and hydrogen peroxide（H2O2）, whereas it was down-regulated by wounding（WO） treatment. The findings indicated that the expression of RsMyr2 gene was differentially regulated by these stress treatments. These results could provide new insight into elucidating the molecular characterization and biological function of myrosinase in radish.
PAN YanXU Yuan-yuanZHU Xian-wenLIU ZheGONG Yi-qinXU LiangGONG Mao-yongLIU Li-wang
