Isolation and Characterization of Mikc-type Mads-box Genes in Petunia

Petunia belongs to the Solanaceae family and is native to South America. The Sol Genomics Network (SGN, http://solgenomics.net) is a web portal with genomic and phenotypic data, and analysis tools for the Solanaceae family and closely related species. In plants, MADS-box transcription factors (TFs) play a variety of roles in various biological processes during growth and development. MADS-box gene family is one of the best-studied gene families in plants and contributes the majority of components to the well-known ABCDE model of flowering that depicts their roles in floral organ development. In plants, there are two types of MADS‐domain proteins, Type I and Type II proteins. The type I or M-type gene forms a heterogeneous group with small DNA sequences (≈ 180 bp) encoding only the MADS domain and are classified as Mα, Mβ, and Mγ based on phylogeny. The type II MIKC-type MADS-box genes encode proteins that exhibit a characteristic domain organization that includes a MADS (M) domain, an intervening (I) domain, a keratin-like (K) domain, and a C-terminal (C) domain.