RsLFY, a LEAFY homologue gene in radish (Raphanus sativus), is continuously expressed in vegetative, reproductive and seed development

The floral meristem identity gene LEAFY (LFY) in Arabidopsis plays a key role in flower development. We isolated two LFY-like genes from radish, designated RsLFY1 and RsLFY2. Comparison of genomic and cDNA sequences revealed that the number and positions of introns are precisely conserved in RsLFY1, RsLFY2 and LFY. Using RsLFY1 full-length cDNA as a probe, genomic DNA blot hybridization analysis detected two hybridizing fragments under high stringency, suggesting that there are two RsLFY loci within radish genome. Both genes were expressed during vegetative growth, reproductive growth, flower development and seed development. RsLFY1 was expressed slightly in leaf primordia and strongly in early floral meristem. It was expressed successively in primordia of sepals, petals, stamens, gynoecium, ovule integument and mature seeds. These results suggest that RsLFY1 plays a similar role to LFY in floral initiation and the developmental stages of floral organs, and that it also may regulate radish seed development, unlike LFY.