Flowering Genes and Homeotic Floral Gene Analysis in Jatropha

Jatropha, Jatropha curcas L., is a monoecious species, which forms unisexual flowers. The unisexual flowers are produced on the same inflorescence with 10 to 30-folds higher ratio of male flowers to female flowers. The bias in the inflorescence limits Jatropha seed production. Flowering genes analysis would provide important knowledge about the multiple environmental and endogenous factors to inflorescence formation. To understand the flowering genes’ characters determined by sequence and phylogenetic analysis could open the process of molecular breeding in future. In Jatropha genomic sequences, Jatropha orthologs of flowering-related genes consisting eight flowering regulators, including five flowering regulators: CONSTANS (CO), FLOWERING LOCUS D (FD), FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT), LEAFY (LFY), SUPRESSOR OF OVEREXPRESSION OF CONSTANS 1 (SOC1), and three floral identity genes: APETALA2 (AP2), APETALA3 (AP3), PISTILLATA (PI), are well identified. Phylogenetic analysis demonstrated that Jatropha flowering-related genes are closely related to those of woody and herbaceous plants. The information of the flowering regulation generated in this study would be used for the qualitative and quantitative improvements in an oil material resource in Jatropha breeding.