Functional conservation of the plant EMBRYONIC FLOWER2 gene between bamboo and Arabidopsis

A novel EMBRYONGIC FLOWER2 gene, DlEMF2, was isolated from bamboo, Dendrocalamus latiflorus. It is 2518 bp in length encoding a protein of 629 amino acids. It was expressed in all organs and at a higher level in shoot tissue than in inflorescences. Transgenic Arabidopsis plants expressing antisense DlEMF2 displayed a spectrum of early-flowering phenotypes. Quantitative real-time PCR experiments indicated that the antisense transgene DlEMF2 reduced endogenous AtEMF2 transcript levels leading to the flowering time reduction. Besides, transforming the bamboo DlEMF2 gene into Arabidopsis emf2-1 mutant could rescue phenotype in vegetative and reproductive developmental stages, which reveals that EMF2 has functional conservation between monocots and eudicots.