Abstract
Cucumber is an important vegetable crop bearing fleshy pepo fruit harvested immature. Fruits left unpicked in time during summer production, as well as unfavorable environmental conditions during post-harvest shelf, will cause cucumber fruits to turn yellow and ripen, and thus impair the market value. Identification of maturity-related genes is of great agricultural and economic importance for cucumber production. Here, we isolated and characterized a MADS-box gene, Cucumis sativus SHATTERPROOF (CsSHP) in cucumber. Expression analysis indicated that CsSHP was specifically enriched in reproductive organs including stamens and carpels. Ectopic expression of CsSHP was unable to rescue the indehiscence silique phenotype of shp1 shp2 mutant plant in Arabidopsis. Instead, overexpression of CsSHP resulted in early flowering, precocious phenotypes, and capelloid organs in wild-type Arabidopsis. Biochemical analysis indicated that CsSHP directly interacted with cucumber SEPALLATA (SEP) proteins. CsSHP expression increased significantly during the yellowing stage of cucumber ripening, and was induced by exogenous application of abscisic acid (ABA). Therefore, CsSHP may participate in fruit maturation through the ABA pathway and floral organ specification via interaction with CsSEPs to form protein complex in cucumber.
Highlights
The fruit is a major evolutionary success in angiosperms which is essential for plant sexual reproduction and environmental adaptation (Fourquin and Ferrandiz, 2012)
According to the ABC model, the sepal is specified by A function genes, the petal is determined by A+B function genes, the stamen is controlled by the B+C function genes, and the carpel is specified by the C class of genes (Coen and Meyerowitz, 1991; Weigel and Meyerowitz, 1994; Fourquin and Ferrandiz, 2012)
A reciprocal BLAST search was performed in The Arabidopsis Information Resource (TAIR) and cucurbit genomics database (CuGenDB), and the NP_001292697.1 (CsaV3_6G015770.1) was confirmed to be the SHP homolog in cucumber, we named it as Cucumis sativus SHATTERPROOF (CsSHP) hereinafter
Summary
The fruit is a major evolutionary success in angiosperms which is essential for plant sexual reproduction and environmental adaptation (Fourquin and Ferrandiz, 2012). According to the ABC model, the sepal is specified by A function genes, the petal is determined by A+B function genes, the stamen is controlled by the B+C function genes, and the carpel is specified by the C class of genes (Coen and Meyerowitz, 1991; Weigel and Meyerowitz, 1994; Fourquin and Ferrandiz, 2012). Subsequent studies showed that SEPALLATA (SEP) genes, expressing in four floral whorls, act as co-factors with ABC homeotic genes in specifying all types of floral organs (Theissen and Saedler, 2001; Favaro et al, 2003; Robles and Pelaz, 2005; Ruelens et al, 2017). MADS-box genes are reported to be the key players in organ morphogenesis throughout the plant life cycle, with a typical MADS domain and a K-box domain in their protein structure (Smaczniak et al, 2012)
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