Abstract: A pair of degenerate oligonucleotides to highly conserved regions at the 3’terminus of L EAFY ( L FY) gene and its homologues , the flower meristem identity genes , is used to amplify a fragment of 883 bp by PCR from the citrus genomic DNA. Sequencing indicated that there is an intron of 473 bp in the fragment . The splice donor site and the splice acceptor site are in identical position to the L FY gene and its homologues. The amino acid sequence deduced from the exons is 77 % - 97 % homologous to that of the corresponding regions of L FY and its orthologues. The expression patterns of
the citrus L FY homolog ( csL FY) were analyzed by RT2PCR. The result indicates that csL FY expression was detected in vegetative and flower buds from the adult tree as well as vegetative buds from the several month old seedlings. However , the level of the csL FY transcripts in the juvenile buds
is lower than in the flower buds.

Key words: Citrus, Juvenile period, Flowering, L EAFY, Gene