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Molecular characterization of an ethylene receptor gene (CcETR1) in coffee trees, its relationship with fruit development and caffeine content

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Abstract

To understand the importance of ethylene receptor genes in the quality of coffee berries three full-length cDNAs corresponding to a putative ethylene receptor gene (ETR1) were isolated from Coffea canephora cDNA libraries. They differed by their 3′UTR and contained a main ORF and a 5′UTR short ORF putatively encoding a small polypeptide. The CcETR1 gene, present as a single copy in the C. canephora genome, contained five introns in the coding region and one in its 5′UTR. Alternative splicing can occur in C. canephora and C. pseudozanguebariae, leading to a truncated polypeptide. C. pseudozanguebariae ETR1 transcripts showed various forms of splicing alterations. This gene was equally expressed at all stages of fruit development. A segregation study on an inter-specific progeny showed that ETR1 is related to the fructification time, the caffeine content of the green beans, and seed weight. Arabidopsis transformed etiolated seedlings, which over-expressed CcETR1, displayed highly reduced gravitropism, but the triple response was observed in an ethylene enriched environment. These plants behaved like a low-concentration ethylene-insensitive mutant thus confirming the receptor function of the encoded protein. This gene showed no induction during the climacteric crisis but some linkage with traits related to quality.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank FONACIT and INIA, Venezuela, for doctoral scholarship to Mr. J. Bustamante.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Agrícolas (INIA), Bramón, Rubio, Táchira, Venezuela

    José Bustamante-Porras

  2. UMR DGPC, Génomique et Qualité du Café, Centre IRD, BP 64501, 34394, Montpellier Cedex, France

    Claudine Campa, Valérie Poncet, Serge Hamon & Alexandre de Kochko

  3. CIRAD, Pôle 3P, Ligne Paradis, 97410, St. Pierre, France

    Michel Noirot

  4. CIRAD, TA 80/03, Avenue Agropolis, 34398, Montpellier Cedex 5, France

    Thierry Leroy

Authors
  1. José Bustamante-Porras
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  2. Claudine Campa
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  3. Valérie Poncet
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  4. Michel Noirot
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  5. Thierry Leroy
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  6. Serge Hamon
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  7. Alexandre de Kochko
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alexandre de Kochko.

Additional information

Communicated by H. Hirt.

The nucleotide sequences data reported here are available in the DDBJ/EMBL/GenBank databases under the following Accession Nos. EF107672, EF107673, EF107674, EF107675, EF107676, EF107677, EF107678, EF107679, EF107680, EF107681, EF107682, EF107683, EF107684, EF107685, EF107686, EF107687.

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Bustamante-Porras, J., Campa, C., Poncet, V. et al. Molecular characterization of an ethylene receptor gene (CcETR1) in coffee trees, its relationship with fruit development and caffeine content. Mol Genet Genomics 277, 701–712 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00438-007-0219-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00438-007-0219-z

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