Molecular Cloning and Analysis of Two Flowering Related Genes from Apple (Malus × domestica)

Apple (malus × domestica borkh.) is the fourth fruit in importance andiran ranks fifth in apple production in the world. longevity of juvenility inapple extends breeding cycles and makes its breeding a tough job. to alleviatethis barrier via genetic engineering, the genes involved in flowering and floraldevelopment of apple and their function must be identified and characterized.most of these genes fall in a class of transcription factors named mads-boxgenes. in the present research, we cloned and analysed the sequences andfeatures of two of these genes, mdmads1 and mdmads3, from apple ‘goldendelicious’ for a deeper functional analysis in the near future. they were foundto be homologs of sep genes belonging to the class e genes involved inflower development and lied in the agl2 clade of mads-box genes in thephylogenetic tree made for apple and arabidopsis mads-box proteins. insilico studies exemplified that both genes had eight exons and seven intronswith a long first intron of about 4 kb and 3 kb for mdmads1 and mdmads3,respectively. the results showed that the structure of both genes has noticeablydiffered from other sep-like genes in evolution.