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A candidate PpRPH gene of the D locus controlling fruit acidity in peach

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Key message

A candidate gene, designate PpRPH, in the D locus was identified to control fruit acidity in peach.

Abstract

Fruit acidity has a strong impact on organoleptic quality of fruit. Peach fruit acidity is controlled by a large-effect D locus on chromosome 5. In this study, the D locus was mapped to a 509-kb interval, with two markers, 5dC720 and 5C1019, co-segregating with the non-acid/acid trait of peach fruit. Within this interval, a candidate gene encoding a putative small protein, designated PpRPH, showed a consistency between gene expression and fruit acidity, with up- and down-regulation in non-acidic and acidic fruits, respectively. Transient ectopic expression of PpRPH in tobacco leaves caused an increase of pH by approximately 40% compared to the control transformed with empty vector. Whereas, the concentrations of citrate and malate decreased significantly by 22% and 37%, respectively, with respect to the empty vector control. All these results suggest that PpRPH is a strong candidate gene of the D locus. These findings contribute to our overall understanding of the complex mechanism underlying fruit acidity in peach as well as that in other fruit crops.

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All data associated with this article can be found in the online version.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Dr. Lei Gao for his help in analysis of resequencing data.

Funding

This work was supported by funds received from the National Key R&D Program of China (2019YFD1000200), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31672134) and the China Agriculture Research System (CARS-30).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CAS Key Laboratory of Plant Germplasm Enhancement and Specialty Agriculture, Wuhan Botanical Garden, The Innovative Academy of Seed Design, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430074, China

    Lu Wang, Xiaohan Jiang, Li Zhao, Yudi Liu, Hui Zhou & Yuepeng Han

  2. Center of Economic Botany, Core Botanical Gardens, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430074, China

    Lu Wang, Xiaohan Jiang & Yuepeng Han

  3. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 19A Yuquanlu, Beijing, 100049, China

    Xiaohan Jiang & Yudi Liu

  4. Institute of Fruit Tree and Tea, Hubei Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Wuhan, 430209, China

    Furong Wang & Huaping He

  5. Sino-African Joint Research Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China

    Yuepeng Han

Authors
  1. Lu Wang
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  2. Xiaohan Jiang
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  3. Li Zhao
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  7. Huaping He
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  8. Yuepeng Han
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Contributions

W.L. conducted most experiments of this study and wrote the manuscript. JX performed the transcriptomic analysis. ZL, FW, HZ and HH prepared the experimental materials. L.Y. participated in analysis of genotyping data. Y.H. was overall project leader and revised the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Yuepeng Han.

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Wang, L., Jiang, X., Zhao, L. et al. A candidate PpRPH gene of the D locus controlling fruit acidity in peach. Plant Mol Biol 105, 321–332 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11103-020-01089-6

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