Authors: Jean Baptiste Bassene Yann Froelicher Claudie DhuiqueMayer Waffa Mouhaya Rosa Mar Ferrer Gema Ancillo Raphael Morillon Luis Navarro Patrick Ollitrault
Publish Date: 2009/08/29
Volume: 28, Issue: 11, Pages: 1689-
Abstract
Allopolyploidy is known to induce novel patterns of gene expression and often gives rise to new phenotypes Here we report on the first attempt to relate phenotypic inheritance in an allotetraploid somatic hybrid with gene expression Carotenoid compounds in the fruit pulp of the two parental species and the hybrid were evaluated quantitatively by HPLC Only very low levels of βcarotene and βcryptoxanthin were observed in Citrus limon while βcryptoxanthin was a major component of C reticulata which also displayed high levels of phytoene phytofluene βcarotene lutein zeaxantin and violaxanthin Total carotenoid content in mandarin juice sacs was 60 times greater than that in lemon The allotetraploid hybrid produced all the same compounds as mandarin but at very low levels Transgressive concentration of abscisic acid ABA was observed in the somatic hybrid Realtime RTPCR of total RNA from juice sacs was used to study expression of seven genes CitDxs CitPsy CitPds CitZds CitLcyb CitChxb and CitZep of the carotenoid biosynthetic pathway and two genes CitNced1 and CitNced2 involved in abscisic acid synthesis from carotenoid Gene expression was significantly higher for mandarin than lemon for seven of the nine genes analyzed Lemon under expression was partially dominant in the somatic hybrid for three upstream steps of the biosynthetic pathway particularly for CitDxs Transgressive over expression was observed for the two CitNced genes A limitation of the upstream steps of the pathway and a downstream higher consumption of carotenoids may explain the phenotype of the somatic hybrid
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