Peculiarity of transcriptional and H3K27me3 dynamics during peach bud dormancy

Bud dormancy facilitates the survival of meristems under harsh environmental conditions.To elucidate how molecular responses to chilling accumulation controlling dormancy in peach buds,chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing to identify the H3K27me3 modifications and RNA sequencing of two peach cultivars with pronounced differences in chilling requirement were carried out,the results showed that genes associated with abscisic acid and gibberellic acid signal pathways play key roles in dormancy regulation.The results demonstrated that peach flower bud differentiation occurred continuously in both cultivars during chilling accumulation,which was correlated with the transcript abundance of key genes involved in phytohormone metabolism and flower bud development under adverse conditions.The more increased strength in high chillingrequirement cultivar along with the chilling accumulation at the genome-wide level.The function of the dormancy-associated MADS-box gene PpDAM6 was identified,which is involved in leaf bud break in peach and flower development in transgenic Nicotiana tabacum(NC89).In addition,PpDAM6 was positively regulated by PpCBF,and the genes of putative dormancy-related and associated with metabolic pathways were proposed.Taken together,these results constituted a theoretical basis for elucidating the regulation of peach bud dormancy transition.

Genome-wide identification and function analysis of the sucrose phosphate synthase MdSPS gene family in apple

Sucrose phosphate synthase(SPS)is a rate-limiting enzyme that works in conjunction with sucrose-6-phosphate phosphatase(SPP)for sucrose synthesis,and it plays an essential role in energy provisioning during growth and development in plants as well as improving fruit quality.However,studies on the systematic analysis and evolutionary pattern of the SPS gene family in apple are still lacking.In the present study,a total of seven MdSPS and four MdSPP genes were identified from the Malus domestica genome GDDH13 v1.1.The gene structures and their promoter cis-elements,protein conserved motifs,subcellular localizations,physiological functions and biochemical properties were analyzed.A chromosomal location and gene-duplication analysis demonstrated that whole-genome duplication(WGD)and segmental duplication played vital roles in MdSPS gene family expansion.The Ka/Ks ratio of pairwise MdSPS genes indicated that the members of this family have undergone strong purifying selection during domestication.Furthermore,three SPS gene subfamilies were classified based on phylogenetic relationships,and old gene duplications and significantly divergent evolutionary rates were observed among the SPS gene subfamilies.In addition,a major gene related to sucrose accumulation(MdSPSA2.3)was identified according to the highly consistent trends in the changes of its expression in four apple varieties(‘Golden Delicious’,‘Fuji’,‘Qinguan’and‘Honeycrisp’)and the correlation between gene expression and soluble sugar content during fruit development.Furthermore,the virus-induced silencing of MdSPSA2.3 confirmed its function in sucrose accumulation in apple fruit.The present study lays a theoretical foundation for better clarifying the biological functions of the MdSPS genes during apple fruit development.

Regulation of A 9-cis-epoxycarotenoid Dioxygenase(NCED)Gene from Raspberry on High Salinity and Cold Tolerance

Abscisic acid(ABA)is a plant hormone that plays an important role in plant development and abiotic stress.The 9-cis-epoxycarotenoid dioxygenase(NCED)is a key rate-limiting enzyme in the ABA biosynthetic pathway.The physiological and molecular mechanisms of NCED regulating plant development and abiotic stress tolerance have been reported in many plant species,but gene function of RiNCEDs in Rubus idaeus L.is rarely reported.In this study,the open reading frame(ORF)sequence of RiNCED2 in red raspberry fruit was isolated and the function of this gene under abiotic stress was investigated.While RiNCED2 was induced by cold,high salinity,drought and ABA,it was highly expressed in new leaves as measured by real-time qPCR.Overexpression of RiNCED2 in Arabidopsis under both high-salt and cold stress increased ABA content,demonstrating that RiNCED2 was involved in ABA biosynthesis.Meanwhile,the leaf wilting degree of transgenic Arabidopsis was less,while the content of malondialdehyde(MDA)was significantly reduced,and the chlorophyll content,proline content,peroxidase(POD),catalase(CAT)and superoxide dismutase(SOD)activities were significantly increased.These results indicated that overexpression of RiNCED2 enhanced the resistance of transgenic Arabidopsis to high salt and cold.

Genetic diversity and population structure analysis of Capsicum germplasm accessions

Genetic diversity plays an essential role in plant breeding and utilization.Pepper is an important vegetable and spice crop worldwide.The genetic diversity of 1 904 accessions of pepper conserved at the National Mid-term Genebank for Vegetables,Beijing,China was analyzed based on 29 simple sequence repeat(SSR)markers,which were evenly distributed over 12 pepper chromosomes.The pepper accessions were divided into two groups in a genetic structure analysis,and the two groups showed obvious differences in fruit type and geographical distribution.We finally selected 248 accessions capturing 75.6%of the SSR alleles as the core collection for further research.Insights into the genetic structure of pepper provide the basis for population-level gene mining and genetic improvement.