MONITORING DIFFERENTIAL EXPRESSION DURING FRUIT MATURATION, RIPENING AND STORAGE AS AN IDENTIFICATION TOOL FOR GENE CANDIDATES FOR SUPERIOR APPLE FRUIT QUALITY

A large-scale transcriptional study by means of the cDNA-AFLP technique was performed on skin and flesh tissue of the apple cultivar ‘Delbard Jubilé’ in an attempt to screen for differential gene expression related to fruit maturation and ripening.
As such around 600 gene fragments could be visualized of which the expression fluctuated significantly in time.
The corresponding profiles were clustered to determine groups of similar expression behavior and related to the expression of ACC-oxidase and polygalacturonase.
A selection of profiles was made for isolation and sequencing of the underlying cDNA-fragment.
Our results clearly demonstrate that by our approach we visualized genes linked to maturation and ripening as we detected some interesting gene fragment homologies for further characterization.
In a second part we tried to describe texture deterioration by following ACC-oxidase and polygalacturonase gene expression during cold storage of 5 cultivars and advanced breeding selections.
The results are promising as we could discriminate superior cultivars from others by tracking differences in gene expression.
Moreover, this has potential for the future characterization of gene candidates for texture evolution.

International Symposium on Biotechnology of Temperate Fruit Crops and Tropical Species

R. Dreesen, J. Keulemans

Malus × domestica, gene expression profiling, cDNA-AFLP, semi-quantitative RT-PCR, apple breeding

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2007.738.32