Spatiotemporal expression of duplicate AGAMOUS orthologues during floral development in Phalaenopsis

The AGAMOUS (AG) family of MADS-box genes plays important roles in controlling the development of the reproductive organs of flowering plants. To understand the molecular mechanisms behind the floral development in the orchid, we isolated and characterized two AG-like genes from Phalaenopsis that we denoted PhalAG1 and PhalAG2. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that PhalAG1 and PhalAG2 fall into different phylogenetic positions in the AG gene family as they belong to the C- and D-lineages, respectively. Reverse transcription-polymerase chair reaction (RT-PCR) analyses showed that PhalAG1 and PhalAG2 transcripts were detected in flower buds but not in vegetative organs. Moreover, in situ hybridization experiments revealed that PhalAG1 and PhalAG2 hybridization signals were observed in the lip, column, and ovule during the floral development of Phalaenopsis, with little difference between the expression patterns of the two genes. These results suggest that both AG-like genes in Phalaenopsis act redundantly with each other in floral development.