Planta Med 2004; 70(4): 347-352
DOI: 10.1055/s-2004-818947
Original Paper
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
© Georg Thieme Verlag Stuttgart · New York

Studies on the Effects of fpf1 Gene on Artemisia annua Flowering Time and on the Linkage between Flowering and Artemisinin Biosynthesis

Hong Wang1 , Lei Ge1 , He-Chun Ye1 , Kang Chong1 , Ben-Ye Liu1 , Guo-Feng Li1
  • 1Key Laboratory of Photosynthesis and Environmental Molecular Physiology, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, P. R. China
Further Information

Publication History

Received: August 5, 2003

Accepted: January 25, 2004

Publication Date:
19 April 2004 (online)

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Abstract

The flowering promoting factor1 (fpf1) from Arabidopsis thaliana was transferred into Artemisia annua L. via Agrobacterium tumefaciens. The fpf1 gene was firstly inserted in the binary vector pBI121 under the control of CaMV 35S promoter to construct the plant expression vector pBIfpf1, then leaf explants of A. annua were infected with A. tumefaciens LBA4404 containing pBIfpf1, and induced shoots. Transgenic plants were obtained through the selection with kanamycin. PCR, PCR-Southern and Southern blot analyses confirmed that the foreign fpf1 gene had been integrated into the A. annua genome. RT-PCR and RT-PCR-Southern analyses suggested that the foreign fpf1 gene had expressed at the transcriptional level. Under short-day conditions, the flowering time of fpf1 transgenic plants was about 20 days earlier than the non-transformed plants; however, no significant differences were detected in artemisinin content between the flowering transgenic plants and the non-flowering non-transgenic plants. These results showed that flowering is not a necessary factor for increasing the artemisinin content, furthermore, there may be no direct linkage between flowering and artemisinin biosynthesis.

References

He-Chun Ye

Key Laboratory of Photosynthesis and Environmental Molecular Physiology

Institute of Botany

Chinese Academy of Sciences

Beijing 100093

People’s Republic of China

Phone: +86-10-82591016

Fax: +86-10-82591016

Email: hcye@ns.ibcas.ac.cn