PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Schranz, M. Eric
AU  - Quijada, Pablo
AU  - Sung, Si-Bum
AU  - Lukens, Lewis
AU  - Amasino, Richard
AU  - Osborn, Thomas C.
TI  - Characterization and Effects of the Replicated Flowering Time Gene <em>FLC</em> in <em>Brassica rapa</em>
DP  - 2002 Nov 01
TA  - Genetics
PG  - 1457--1468
VI  - 162
IP  - 3
4099  - http://www.genetics.org/content/162/3/1457.short
4100  - http://www.genetics.org/content/162/3/1457.full
SO  - Genetics2002 Nov 01; 162
AB  - Functional genetic redundancy is widespread in plants and could have an important impact on phenotypic diversity if the multiple gene copies act in an additive or dosage-dependent manner. We have cloned four Brassica rapa homologs (BrFLC) of the MADS-box flowering-time regulator FLC, located at the top of chromosome 5 of Arabidopsis thaliana. Relative rate tests revealed no evidence for differential rates of evolution and the ratios of nonsynonymous-to-synonymous substitutions suggest BrFLC loci are not under strong purifying selection. BrFLC1, BrFLC2, and BrFLC3 map to genomic regions that are collinear with the top of At5, consistent with a polyploid origin. BrFLC5 maps near a junction of two collinear regions to Arabidopsis, one of which includes an FLC-like gene (AGL31). However, all BrFLC sequences are more closely related to FLC than to AGL31. BrFLC1, BrFLC2, and BrFLC5 cosegregate with flowering-time loci evaluated in populations derived by backcrossing late-flowering alleles from a biennial parent into an annual parent. Two loci segregating in a single backcross population affected flowering in a completely additive manner. Thus, replicated BrFLC genes appear to have a similar function and interact in an additive manner to modulate flowering time.