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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Ithaca, New York » Robert W. Holley Center for Agriculture & Health » Plant, Soil and Nutrition Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #310843
Title: The PH gene determines fruit acidity and contributes to the evolution of sweet melons

Author
item COHEN, SAHAR - Agricultural Research Organization Of Israel
item ITKIN, MAXIM - Agricultural Research Organization Of Israel
item YESSELSON, YELLENA - Agricultural Research Organization Of Israel
item PORTNOI, VITALY - Agricultural Research Organization Of Israel
item FEI, ZHANGJUN - Boyce Thompson Institute
item XU, YIMIN - Boyce Thompson Institute
item Giovannoni, James
item TADMOR, YAKKOV - Agricultural Research Organization Of Israel
item KATZIR, NURIT - Agricultural Research Organization Of Israel
item BURGER, YOSEPH - Agricultural Research Organization Of Israel
item SCHAFFER, ARTHUR - Agricultural Research Organization Of Israel

Submitted to: Nature Communications
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/2/2014
Publication Date: 6/5/2014
Publication URL: http://DOI: 10.1038/ncomms5026
Citation: Cohen, S., Itkin, M., Yesselson, Y., Portnoi, V., Fei, Z., Xu, Y., Giovannoni, J.J., Tadmor, Y., Katzir, N., Burger, Y., Schaffer, A. 2014. The PH gene determines fruit acidity and contributes to the evolution of sweet melons. Nature Communications. 5:4026.

Interpretive Summary: The domestication and diversification of cultivated plants lie at the core of agricultural development and represent the effects of indirect human selection for specific DNA sequences based on the observation of desirable plant characteristics (egs. yield, filed performance, appearance, flavor). Here we describe the identification of a specific gene sequence change, or polymorphism, that distinguishes between primitive acidic melons and modern dessert varieties. We termed the gene CmPH for its impact on fruit acidity (als known as pH). This fortuitous mutation served as a preadaptive antecedent to the development of sweet melon cultigens in Central Asia over 1000 years ago. The results presented here identify a plant-specific gene family responsible for the important trait of fruit acidity and reveal the fateful molecular evolutionary event that eventually led to the popularity and expansion of melon species around the globe.

Technical Abstract: Acids are one of the three major components of fleshy fruit taste, together with sugars and volatile flavor compounds. However, the molecular-genetic control of acid accumulation in fruit is poorly understood and, to date, no genes responsible for acid accumulation in fleshy fruit have been functionally identified. Herein we describe the first family of plant-specific genes controlling fruit acidity. We identified CmPH from melon, Cucumis melo, by a map-based cloning strategy, taking advantage of the natural genetic variation for fruit acidity in this species. CmPH encodes a novel membrane transporter and functional silencing of PH orthologs in both cucumber and tomato led to development of low acid, bland tasting fruit, showing that PH genes, expressed in nearly all fruit, control fruit acidity across plant families.