An evolutionary and developmental approach toward understanding of growth variations of two closely related dwarfism of Galium verum

Galium L. is one of the largest and most widespread genus of Rubiaceae, consisting of more than 650 species worldwide. Galium verum var. asiaticum (G. verum a.) is a perennial herbaceous and widely distributed in in Korea peninsula. On the other hand, Galium verum var. asiaticum for. pusillum (G. verum a.p.) is endemic to Korea, inhabiting only on high land of Mt. Halla of Jeju. G. verum a.p. appears to be a dwarfism of G. verum a. We wondered what physiological, environmental, or genetic factors rendered those two taxa morphologically differentiated. We found that G. verum a.p. shows a low activity of the cell proliferation and was not associated with responsiveness contents of auxin and gibberellins. In order to search for genetic factors involved, we carried out an mRNA differential display method using the ACPs, and isolated several different expression genes between the two taxa. We chose one of those genes, which encoded RADIALIS-like proteins: GvaRADL1 from G. verum a. and GvapRADL1 from G. verum a.p. We discuss the relevancy of the genetic variations in regard to the differential expression patterns of those genes and the differential growth patterns of the two variants.