Abstract
BackgroundKiwifruit (Actinidia chinensis var. Chinensis) is abundant with vitamin C and is a rapidly developing crop in China, New Zealand, and other countries. It has been widely used as a raw material for food and kiwifruit wine. Among these, A. chinensis var. chinensis and A. chinensis var. deliciosa are the most valuable kiwifruit in production. Kiwifruit is a typical dioecious plant and its female and male plants have different economic values. Therefore, sex identification, especially at the seedling stage, has important implications for the scientific planning of its production and economic benefits. However, the kiwifruit sex regulation mechanism is very complex and molecular studies are in the initial stages. Currently, there is not a universal and effective sex identification method for A. chinensis.MethodsIn this study, we used a label-free quantitative proteomics approach to investigate differentially accumulated proteins, including their presence/absence and significantly different levels of abundances during A. chinensis var. chinensis male and female flower bud development.ResultsA total of 6485 proteins were identified, among which, 203 were identified in male buds, which were mainly associated with phenylalanine metabolism, tyrosine metabolism, and plant hormone signal transduction. In female buds, 241 were identified, which were mainly associated with the ErbB signaling pathway, growth hormone synthesis, secretion and action, and mRNA surveillance pathway. A total of 373 proteins were significantly differentially accumulated proteins (fold change > 2; P < 0.05), of which, 168 were upregulated and 205 were downregulated. Significant differences between proteins involved 13 signaling pathways, most of which were involved in flavonoid biosynthesis, phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, and starch and sucrose metabolism. Protein interaction analysis showed that enriched protein nodes included cell division cycle 5-like protein, 40S ribosomal protein S8, ribosomal protein, and 40S ribosomal protein like, which interact with 35, 25, 22, and 22 proteins, respectively.ConclusionsThis study provide valuable information for cloning key genes that control sex traits and functionally analyze their roles, which lay a foundation to the development of molecular markers for male and female kiwifruit identification.
Highlights
Actinidia chinensis var. chinensis and A. chinensis var. deliciosa are the most valuable kiwifruit in production
As a typical dioecious plant, research has shown that using male plants as rootstocks has strong grafting advantages, but most rootstocks currently used in production consist of 1–2-year-old seedlings
Form of heat map by differentially accumulated proteins (Fig. 2). It were identified 373 proteins that were significantly differentially accumulated between male and female buds. These differentially accumulated proteins were mainly divided into two clusters, of the 205 proteins which were up-regulated in female and down-regulated in male, 168 which were up-regulated in male and down-regulated in female
Summary
Actinidia chinensis var. chinensis and A. chinensis var. deliciosa are the most valuable kiwifruit in production. Since the 1980s, researchers have studied genetic markers between male and female plants, including morphological markers, flavonoid content [1], soluble sugar content [2], chlorophyll content [3], and protective enzyme activity [4]. These genetic markers are unstable due to their sensitivity to the environment and have not been used effectively in practical applications. The goal of this study was to resolve the sex-determining mechanism of kiwifruit, which lay a foundation to develop molecular markers to identify gender at the seedling stage. There is not a universal and effective sex identification method for A. chinensis
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