Abstract
Texture is an important attribute affecting consumer perception of fruit quality. Peach melting flesh and flesh adhesion to stone (endocarp) are simply inherited and controlled by the F-M locus on linkage group (LG) 4. Here, we report that two genes encoding endopolygalacturonase (endoPG) in the F-M locus, designated PpendoPGF and PpendoPGM, are associated with the melting flesh and stone adhesion traits. PpendoPGM controls melting flesh while PpendoPGF has pleiotropic effects on both melting flesh and stone adhesion. The F-M locus has three allelic copy number variants of endoPG, H1 (PpendoPGF and PpendoPGM), H2 (PpendoPGM), and H3 (null). The H2 haplotype represents the ancestral one while the H1 and H3 haplotypes are two variants due to duplication and deletion of PpendoPGM, respectively. Accessions with H1H1, H1H2, or H1H3 genotypes show the freestone or semi-freestone and melting flesh phenotype, while both H2H2 and H2H3 accessions have the clingstone and melting flesh phenotype. The H3H3 accessions have the clingstone and non-melting flesh phenotype. Our study not only demonstrates a driving role of gene copy number variations in flesh texture diversification in fruit trees, but also provides a useful diagnostic tool for early seedling selection in peach breeding programmes.
Highlights
Texture is a sensory property that involves a variety of traits such as crispness, firmness, meltiness, and juiciness, it has an important direct influence on the consumer’s perception of fruit quality (Brookfield et al, 2011)
We report that two genes encoding endopolygalacturonase in the F-M locus, designated PpendoPGF and PpendoPGM, are associated with the melting flesh and stone adhesion traits
Peaches are climacteric fruits and can be divided into melting flesh (MF) and non-melting flesh (NMF) types according to fruit softening behaviour
Summary
Texture is a sensory property that involves a variety of traits such as crispness, firmness, meltiness, and juiciness, it has an important direct influence on the consumer’s perception of fruit quality (Brookfield et al, 2011). MF peaches lose flesh firmness gradually during early ripening and soften rapidly (melting phase) in the late stages of ripening, whereas NMF peaches lack the melting phase and retain flesh firmness when fully ripe. Both MF and NMF peaches show considerable variation in firmness and texture MF is completely dominant over NMF (Bailey and French, 1949; Monet, 1989). The degree of adhesion can be varied as some peaches show semi-freestone or semi-clingstone (Bailey and French, 1949) Based on both flesh softening and stone adhesion, all peaches can be classified into three phenotypes, freestone melting flesh (FMF), clingstone melting flesh (CMF), and clingstone non-melting flesh (CNMF). The phenotype of freestone non-melting flesh (FNMF) has not been reported (Van Der Heyden et al, 1997)
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