Unraveling the Nectar Secretion Pathway and Floral-Specific Expression of and Genes in Five Dandelion Species Through RNA Sequencing.

, a genus in the Asteraceae family, is widely distributed across temperate regions and plays a vital ecological role by providing nectar and pollen to pollinators during the early flowering season. Floral nectar is a key reward that plants use to attract pollinators, and its production is tightly regulated by genes such as sugar transporters and (), which govern sugar efflux and hydrolysis. Despite their ecological importance, the molecular mechanisms underlying nectar secretion in remain poorly understood. In this study, we performed RNA sequencing of flower tissues from five species-, , , , and -to investigate the expression of nectar-related genes. De novo transcriptome assembly revealed that had the highest unigene count (74,689), followed by (69,234), (64,296), (59,599), and (58,924). Functional annotation and phylogenetic analyses identified 17 putative and 18 genes across the five species. Differential gene expression analysis highlighted and as consistently up-regulated during the flowering stage. Quantitative PCR in further validated that , , , and show significant expression during floral development but are down-regulated after pollination. These genes are likely central to the regulation of nectar secretion in response to pollination cues. Our findings suggest that may have evolved to have an efficient, pollinator-responsive nectar secretion system, contributing to its global adaptability. This study sheds light on how pollinator interactions influence gene expression patterns and may drive evolutionary divergence among species.