Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Jul 31.
doi: 10.1007/s12033-025-01489-3. Online ahead of print.

DcMADS3, a MADS-Box Transcription Factor, Highly Expressed at the Middle Flower Bud Stage and Involved in Petalization Development in Carrot

Shan-Shan Tan  1 , Shan-Shan Liu  1 , Jing Ma  2 , Yi Liang  3 , Ao-Qi Duan  1 , Yuan-Jie Deng  1 , Ya-Hui Wang  1 , Hui Liu  1 , Zhi-Sheng Xu  1 , Ai-Sheng Xiong  4
Affiliations

DcMADS3, a MADS-Box Transcription Factor, Highly Expressed at the Middle Flower Bud Stage and Involved in Petalization Development in Carrot

Shan-Shan Tan et al. Mol Biotechnol. .

Abstract

Carrot (Daucus carota), an Apiaceae family crop, possesses the typical compound umbellate inflorescence with small flowers. The mechanism of carrot floral development is still unknown. APETALA3 (AP3) is a MADS-box transcription factor that primarily participates in stamen and petal development. In this study, DcMADS3 belonging to the APETALA3 group was cloned, which can form a heterodimer with DcMADS2 belonging PI (PISTILLATA) group. Expression analysis revealed DcMADS3 was higher in 'Kurodagosun' (normal flower, KRD) than 'Deep Purple' ('petaloid' CMS phenotype, DPP) at the middle flower bud stage. Its expression was greater in DPP petals (normal petal and petaloid petal) than in KRD petals, suggesting its potential role in regulating petalization development in carrot. Transgenic Arabidopsis overexpressing DcMADS3 resulted in altered petal size, increased petal number, and altered flower symmetry. Furthermore, yeast one-hybrid (Y1H) library screening identified DcXTH-like (DCAR_009699) as a potential factor binding to the DcMADS3 promoter. These results provided a theoretical foundation for further investigation of carrot floral organ development mechanism.

Keywords: Carrot; Floral organ; Interaction analysis; MADS-box transcription factor; Overexpression.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Conflict of interest: The authors declare that they do not have any competing financial or commercial interest that represents a conflict of interest in connection with this paper.

References

    1. Coen, E. S., & Meyerowitz, E. M. (1991). The war of the whorls: Genetic interactions controlling flower development. Nature, 353, 31–37.
    1. Theissen, G., & Saedler, H. (2001). Plant biology. Floral quartets. Nature, 409, 469–471.
    1. Shan, H., Cheng, J., Zhang, R., Yao, X., & Kong, H. (2019). Developmental mechanisms involved in the diversification of flowers. Nature plants, 5, 917–923.
    1. Weigel, D., & Meyerowitz, E. M. (1994). The ABCs of floral homeotic genes. Cell, 78, 203–209.
    1. Pinyopich, A., Ditta, G. S., Savidge, B., Liljegren, S. J., Baumann, E., Wisman, E., & Yanofsky, M. F. (2003). Assessing the redundancy of MADS-box genes during carpel and ovule development. Nature, 424, 85–88.

LinkOut - more resources