Identification and functional verification of PlFT gene associated with flowering in herbaceous peony based on transcriptome analysis

In this study, we used Illumina HiSeq platform to analyze RNA-Seq comparative transcriptome of the Paeonia lactiflora in three different flowering period. 9 cDNA libraries were constructed. 92.53 Gb data and 81,788 Unigenes were obtained. We screened the genes related to the regulation of Paeonia lactiflora flowering; then isolated and cloned the PlFT gene related to flowering. The total length of PlFT gene is 592 bp, which has a complete open reading frame of 522 bp and encodes 173 amino acids. Then we constructed the expression vector of it for genetic transformation. The aim is to provide theoretical basis for exploring the molecular mechanism of flowering regulation of Paeonia lactiflora and clarifying the key genes which can potentially regulate Paeonia lactiflora flowering.