The structure of the protein and gene expression of PIC2, affecting flowering Flowers (.Crocus sativus L)

Saffron is grown for using its flower and red color stigma. This plant has many uses in the food industry, paints and medicine. Due to its high monetary worth, identification of genes involved in the flowering is very important. In order to better understand the molecular mechanisms involved in the onset of flowering, Gene and gene expression of Pistillata-Like MADS box (PIC2) were studied. The Gene sequences have high homology with other family members of the MADS-box family (one of the transcription factors control the expression of proteins flowers). In this research, the gene was studied using bioinformatics resources. Primers were designed for amplification of the gene and then the total DNA and RNA were extracted from the leaves of saffron. cDNA synthesis was performed by the reverse transcriptase enzyme and it was used as a template for amplification of PIC2 gene by PCR reaction. The reaction was amplified to a fragment with length 900 bp from cDNA and another fragment with length 2100 bp from genomic DNA. This gene encodes a protein that includes 210 amino acids. By analyzing the molecular structure of protein transcripts based on modeling of the gene homology, the spatial figure showed that they have a regular structure.