Abstract: FLC (FLOWERING LOCUS C) in Raphanus species were identified using data mining method from Raphanus EST database. The full length CDS sequence of Arabidopsis thaliana vernalization pathway key gene FLC was used as reference to search the homologous ESTs in Raphanus EST database. Sequences with Score ≥100， Evalue ≤10-10 and coverage ≥70% were considered as the candidate FLCgenelike ESTs， which were assembled and annotated in the following analysis. The results showed that 70 FLCgenelike ESTs were identified in Raphanus， and four FLC candidate genes (RsFLCa， RsFLCb， RrFLCa and RrFLCb) were predicted， among which RsFLCa and RsFLCb were originated from Raphanus sativus， and the other two were originated from Raphanus raphanistrum. The homologous FLC genes in Raphanus and Arabidopsis thaliana shared 787%-869% nucleotide sequence identity， and paralogs FLC genes in Raphanus shared 759%-934% nucleotide sequence identity. Identities of FLC orthologs between Raphanus and Brassica were more than 85%， which was higher than that between Raphanus and A. thaliana. Moreover， phylogenetic analysis suggested that multicopy of FLC genes in Raphanus may be corresponded with genome polyploidy of Raphanus spieces， which was similar to that of FLC genes in Brassica species．

Key words: Cruciferae, Raphanus, flowering time gene