Skip to main content
Log in

Molecular characterization of a fruit-preferential thaumatin-like gene from apple (Malus domestica cv. Fuji)

  • Published:
Journal of Plant Biology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Functioning of the thaumatin-like (TL) protein is known to be pathogenesis- or stress-related. Here we identified TL protein cDNA, from an apple- skin library, that was nearly identical to that of theMdTl1 gene. Transcripts of this so-named gene,MdTL1a, were highly expressed in the fruit, but rarely in other tissue types. Expression was found in both the skin and the flesh of the fruit We also examined the environmental or hormonal control ofMdTL1a expression. Exposing the fruit to light caused this gene to be induced in the skin tissues. Accumulation ofMdTL1a mRNA reached a peak between Days 1 and 5 after exposure. In the leaves,MdTL1a was induced by salicylic acid (SA), but was not significantly affected by any other stresses. Analysis of theMdTL1a genomic clone, λTL1, revealed that transcription ofMdTL1a begins 53 bp upstream of the start codon. Sequence analysis of the ca. 1.0-kbMdTL1a promoter region has enabled us to predict that it has a stress-related cis-element, such as the ABA responsive element (ABRE), as well as a light-responsive GT-1 and l-box.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

Literature cited

  • Albrecht H, van de Rhee MD, Bol JF (1992) Analysis ofas- regulatory elements involved in induction of a tobacco PR-5 gene by virus infection. Plant Mol Biol18: 155- 158

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Altschul SF, Gish W, Myers EW, Lopman D (1990) Basic local alignment search tool. J Mol Biol215: 403–410

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Baker SS, Wilhelm KS, Thomashow MF (1994) The 5’- region ofArabidopsis thaliana cor15a has cis-acting elements that confer cold-, drought- and ABA-regulated gene expression. Plant Mol Biol24: 701–713

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Brown AG (1975) Apples,In J Janick, JN Moore, eds, Advances in Fruit Breeding, Purdue University Press, West Lafayette, IN, USA, 3–37

    Google Scholar 

  • Clendennen SK, May GD (1997) Differential gene expression in ripening banana fruit. Plant Physiol115: 463–469

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Dave RS, Mitra RK (1998) A low temperature induced apoplastic protein isolated fromArachis hypogaea. Phytochemistry49: 2207–2213

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Dolferus R, Jacobs M, Peacock WJ, Dennis ES (1994) Differential interactions of promoter elements in stress responses of theArabidopsis Adh gene. Plant Physiol105: 1075–1087

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Fils-Lycaon BR, Wiersma PA, Eastwell KC, Sautiere P (1996) A cherry protein and its gene, abundantly expressed in ripening fruit, have been identified as thaumatin-like. Plant Physiol111: 269–273

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kim YS, Park JY Kim, KS, Ko MK, Cheong SJ, Oh BJ (2002) A thaumatin-like gene in nonclimacteric pepper fruits used as molecular marker in probing disease resistance, ripening, and sugar accumulation. Plant Mol Biol49: 125–135

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Korban SS, Skirvin RM (1984) Nomenclature of the cultivated apple. HortScience19: 177–180

    Google Scholar 

  • Malehorn DE, Borgmeyer JR, Smith CE, Shah DM (1994) Characterization and expression of an antifungal zeamatin-like protein(ZIP) gene from Zea mays. Plant Physiol106: 1471–1481

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Oh DH, Song KJ, Shin YU, Chung Wl (2000) Isolation of a cDNA encoding a 31-kDa, pathogenesis-related 5/ thaumatin-like (PR5/TL) protein abundantly expressed in apple fruit(Malus domestica cv. Fuji. Biosci Biotechnol Biochem64: 355–362

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Qin XF, Holuigue L, Horvath DM, Chua NH (1994) Immediate early transcription activation by salicylic acid via the cauliflower mosaic virus as-1 element. Plant Cell6: 863–874

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Rakwal R, Agrawal GK, Yonekura M (1999) Separation of proteins from stressed rice(Oryza sativa L.) leaf tissues by two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis: Induction of pathogenesis-related and cellular protectant proteins by jasmonic acid, UV irradiation and copper chloride. Electrophoresis20: 3472–3478

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Richard L, Arró M, Hoebeke J, Meeks-Wagner DR, Tran Thanh Van K (1992) Immunological evidence of thaumatin-like proteins during floral differentiation. Plant Physiol98: 337–342

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sambrook J, Fritsch EF, Maniatis T (1989) Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory Manual, Ed 2, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Sanger F, Nicklen S, Coulson AR (1977) DNA sequencing with chain terminating inhibitors. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA74: 5463–5467

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sassa H, Hirano H (1998) Style-specific and developmentally regulated accumulation of a glycosylated thaumatin/PR5-like protein in Japanese pear(Pyrus serotina Rend). Planta205: 514–521

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sassa H, Ushijima K, Hirano H (2002) A pistil-specific thaumatin/PR5-like protein gene of Japanese pear(Pyrus serotina): Sequence and promoter activity of the 5′ region in transgenic tobacco. Plant Mol Biol50: 371–377

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Shih CT, Wu J, Jia S, Khan AA, Ting KH, Shih DS(2001) Purification of an osmotin-like protein from the seeds ofBenincasa hispida and cloning of the gene encoding this protein. Plant Sci160: 817–826

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Singh, NH, Nelson DE, Kuhn D, Hasegawa PM, Bressan RA (1989) Molecular cloning of osmotin and regulation of its expression by ABA and adaptation to low water potential. Plant Physiol90: 1096–1101

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Song KJ (1999) Changes of sugar composition and the activities of related enzymes in apple fruits. Ph.D. thesis. Seoul National University, Seoul

    Google Scholar 

  • Sung SK, Jeong DH, Nam J, Kim SH, Kim SR, An G (1998) Expressed sequence tags of fruits, peels, and carpels and analysis of mRNA expression levels of the tagged cDNAs of fruits from the Fuji apple. Mol Cells8: 565–577

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Tattersall DB, van Heeswijck R, Hoj PB (1997) Identification and characterization of a fruit-specific thaumatin-like protein that accumulates at very high levels in conjunction with the onset of sugar accumulation and berry softening in grapes. Plant Physiol114: 759–769

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Terzaghi WB, Cashmore AR (1995) Light-regulated transcription. Annu Rev Plant Physiol Plant Mol Biol46: 445–474

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Uknes S, Mauch-Mani B, Moyer M, Potter S, Williams S, Dincher S, Chandler D, Slusarenko A, Ward E, Ryals J (1992) Acquired resistance inArabidopsis. Plant Cell4: 645–656

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • van der Wei H, Loeve K (1972) Isolation and characterization of thaumatin I and II, the sweet-tasting protein fromThaumatococcus daniellii Benth. Eur J Biochem31: 221–225

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • von Heijne G (1983) Patterns of amino acids near signal-sequence cleavage sites. Eur J Biochem133: 17–21

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang CS, Vodkin LO (1994) Extraction of RNA from tissues containing high levels of procyanidins that bind RNA. Plant Mol Biol Rep12: 132–145

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wang H, Ng T (2002) Isolation of an antifungal thaumatin-like protein from kiwi fruits. Phytochemistry61: 1–6

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Xu Y, Chang P, Liu D, Narasimhan ML, Raghothama KG, Hasegawa PM, Bressan RA (1994) Plant defense genes are synergistically induced by ethylene and methyl jas-monate. Plant Cell6: 1077–1085

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Yamaguchi-Shinozaki K, Shinozaki K (1994) A novel cis-acting element in anArabidopsis gene is involved in responsiveness to drought, low-temperature, or high-salt stress. Plant Cell6: 251–264

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Yu XM, Griffith M (1999) Antifreeze proteins in winter rye leaves form oligomeric complexes. Plant Physiol119: 1361–1370

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Yu XM, Griffith M (2001) Winter rye antifreeze activity increases in response to cold and drought, but not abscisic acid. Physiol Plant112: 78–86

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Zhu B, Chen TH, Li PH (1993) Expression of an ABA-responsive osmotin-like gene during the induction of freezing tolerance inSolanum commersonii. Plant Mol Biol21: 729–735

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Seong-Ryong Kim.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Kim, SH., Lee, JR. & Kim, SR. Molecular characterization of a fruit-preferential thaumatin-like gene from apple (Malus domestica cv. Fuji). J. Plant Biol. 46, 52–58 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03030302

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03030302

Keywords

Navigation