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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Kearneysville, West Virginia » Appalachian Fruit Research Laboratory » Innovative Fruit Production, Improvement, and Protection » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #164830
Title: DISSECTING THE ENDOPOLYGALACTURONASE LOCUS OF PEACH

Author
item Callahan, Ann
item Scorza, Ralph
item Bassett, Carole

Submitted to: Meeting Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/7/2004
Publication Date: 5/22/2004
Citation: Callahan, A.M., Scorza, R., Bassett, C.L. 2004. Dissecting the endopolygalacturonase locus of peach. Proceedings of the 2nd International Rosaceae Genome Mapping Conference, Clemson SC, May 2004, pg. 5.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Endopolygalacturonase activity during fruit softening in peach has been correlated with the melting flesh texture (MF). Non-melting flesh (NMF) fruit have no detectable endopolygalacturonase activity. An endopolygalacturonase cDNA (PRF5) was used to detect a RFLP that was associated with the MF characteristic in a cross segregating for MF and NMF fruit. Testing a broader range of NMF cultivars confirmed that there was little or no mRNA detected for endopolygalacturonase during fruit ripening. In addition, DNA blot analyses identified one DNA fragment that was associated with the MF cultivars. All of the NMF cultivars had that fragment deleted as well as up to five other endopolygalacturonase DNA fragments, when using the PRF5 as a probe. This suggested multiple related endopolygalacturonase genes. Specific PCR primers were designed to differentiate known peach polygalacturonase genes. Results from the PCR reactions with the NMF cultivar DNAs suggested that the one fragment that was deleted in all the NMF cultivars was not the PRF5 gene. This implies that there is a closely related linked gene that is responsible for the MF phenotype.