To set or not to set: new tools to study the control of cucumber fruit set

Understanding the developmental control of fruit set is an important challenge.
In cucumber, fruit set is governed by several hormones, including gibberellin, cytokinin and auxin, and is also affected by assimilate supply and previous fruit load.
We have produced transgenic cucumbers that express reporter genes under the control of the Exp, ARR5 and DR5 promoters, reported to respond to gibberellin, cytokinin and auxin, respectively.
Specific expression patterns were observed in ovaries and ovules of cucumber at different stages, and we try to correlate these with ovary developmental fates.
To determine the possible role of metabolite supply in fruit set, we monitored the transcript levels of sugar-metabolism genes in the ovaries, including ovary-specific invertases, as well as a fruit-set related galactosyl transferase.
Finally, metabolomic analysis of ovaries has been initiated, to look at metabolic changes that mark cucumber fruit set.

V International Symposium on Cucurbits

Y. Shnaider, Y. Brotman, R. Perl-Treves

cucumber, fruit set, metabolomics, hormone reporter genes

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2017.1151.28