DEVELOPMENT AND MAPPING OF MOLECULAR MARKERS FOR CANDIDATE GENES INVOLVED IN APPLE FRUIT TEXTURE

Marker assisted selection and breeding have great promise for improving the efficiency of the classical apple breeding cycle.
However, the use of molecular markers is not yet standard practice, mainly because most important fruit quality attributes are polygenic and encoded for by multiple genes or genomic regions.
One of the most important fruit quality characteristics is the maintenance of fruit firmness during post-harvest storage.
Upon ripening, textural changes are induced in the fruit cortex tissue, ultimately leading to softening, loss of crispness and juiciness and the occurrence of mealiness.
In the present study, candidate genes (CGs) potentially involved in regulating fruit texture changes were selected from either our gene discovery program or from literature and public databases.
These CGs belong to functional classes involved in cell wall degradation, ethylene biosynthesis, signal transduction and perception as well as sequences with a potentially regulatory function that are up-regulated around the climacterium.
From all these sequences a set of PCR-based genetic markers was developed and used to examine the allelic variation present in a set of >100 cultivar and breeding selections.
Finally, when possible, these CG-derived markers were also mapped onto the available genetic linkage maps of the cultivars ‘Telamon’ and ‘Braeburn’.

XXVIII International Horticultural Congress on Science and Horticulture for People (IHC2010): International Symposium on Postharvest Technology in the Global Market

R. Dreesen , M.W. Davey, K. Peeters, N.-J. Van der Veken , J. Keulemans

candidate gene, Malus × domestica, ripening, molecular markers, breeding, fruit texture, genetic mapping

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2012.934.109