Defining ethylene regulation of apple fruit quality traits
Author: Abhaya M. Dandekar, Adel Kader
Published: 2007
Summary: Our overall goal was to define the role of ethylene in the functional regulation of apple fruit quality. This was accomplished by using transgenic apple fruit modified in their capacity to synthesize endogenous ethylene or wild type fruit modified in their ethylene response via the application of 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP). Tissues were obtained from ripening wild type, transgenic and treated fruit (ethylene gas of 1-MCP) displaying significant differences in phenotypic traits responsive to ethylene. These differences in phenotypes were matched with changes in gene expression patterns which were used to identify ethylene regulated genes in apple fruit tissues. We created specialized resources and mining tools to utilize the information available in GeneBank to annotate the genes that we identified. Validation of the ethylene regulated genes was accomplished by quantitative real time PCR (RT-PCR) along with the analysis of metabolites from the same tissues to define the biochemical pathways by identifying the key metabolites, their precursors and the enzymes involved.
