Identification and characterization of genes differentially displayed in Rosa hybrida petals during flower senescence

► Operating cDNA-AFLP for senescence inducible genes finding in two Rosa hybrida cultivars. ► Five transcripts from 35 isolated fragments which showed clear variation in the presence/absence between two cultivars were screened. ► DNA helicase, translation initiation factor IF-1, β-d-galactosidase and arabinogalactan encoding genes were examples of senescence induced ones. ► The expression patterns of these genes were analyzed by real-time RT-PCR and most of them were up-regulated and one other was down-regulated in both cultivars.