CsPI from the perianthless early-diverging Chloranthus spicatus show function on petal development in Arabidopsis thaliana

BACKGROUND: In the floral ABC model, B-class genes comprised of DEFICIENS (DEF)/APETALA3 (AP3) and GLOBOSA (GLO)/PISTILLATA (PI) had been proposed to involve in second and third whorl floral organ development. However, less is known about the function of B-class genes from early-diverging angiosperms. Chloranthaceae is one of the early-diverging angiosperm families. In this study, we characterized the role of the PI-like gene CsPI cloned from Chloranthus spicatus which have the simplest perianthless bisexual flowers. RESULTS: The expression profile analysis reveals high levels of CsPI mRNA in stamens in Chloranthus spicatus, with weak distribution in leaves and other floral organs. Nevertheless, CsPI rescued both stamen and petal development in Arabidopsis thaliana pi-1 mutants and caused partially conversion of sepals into petaloid organs in wild-type Arabidopsis thaliana plants. Yeast two-hybrid analysis showed that CsPI can form not only homodimers but also heterodimers with proteins encoded by Arabidopsis thaliana and Chloranthus spicatus AP3-like genes. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggested that CsPI has an ancestral function on stamen development and that CsPI has capability to specify petal development in Arabidopsis thaliana. The finding indicates that the activity of the encoded PI-like proteins is highly conserved between the early-diverging Chloranthus and Arabidopsis. Moreover, our results appear to suggest that B-function genes may not play a role in perianth development in Chloranthus spicatus. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1999-3110-55-21) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.