Expressed sequence tags of young floral buds and characterization of a bud- preferential lectin- like cDNA fromPharbitis nil

To identify the genes involved in flower development, we analyzed 207 expressed sequence tags (ESTs) from a young floral bud cDNA library ofPharbitis nil. Of these, 87 clones (42%) showed significant homology to known protein sequences in the NCBI database. Four of these had not been reported previously in the plant kingdom, indicating that 1.9% of the ESTs were newly identified in plants. Functional categorization revealed that the genes involved in metabolic pathways, such as glycolysis and photosynthesis, were most abundant Reverse-northern and northern analyses showed that one clone,PnFP161, was expressed preferentially in floral buds. DNA sequence analysis indicated that this clone contained 147 bp of 5′-UTR, 264 bp of -UTR, and an open reading frame of 233 amino acids, thereby sharing 33% identity with a lectin fromCalystegia sepium. The C-terminal regionof PnFPI61 had well-conserved residue with that of the lectins. Southern blot analysis demonstrated thatPnFPI61 exists as a multigene family.