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Quantification of the Relative Abundance of Plastome to Nuclear Genome in Leaf and Root Tissues of Carrot (Daucus carota L.) Using Quantitative PCR

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Abstract

Carrot (Daucus carota L.) is an important horticultural crop with significant health benefits, providing provitamin A carotenoids in the human diet. Carotenoids primarily serve as photoprotectants in leaves during photosynthesis where they accumulate in chloroplasts. Carotenoids can also accumulate in chromoplasts, non-chlorophyll-containing plastids, in non-photosynthetic organs such as the storage roots of carrot. Therefore, plastid development is closely associated with carotenoid accumulation. The biosynthesis of chromoplasts, or more specifically the conversion of chloroplasts to chromoplasts, has been studied in a number of carotenoid-accumulating plant species, but the presence of the plastome had not been confirmed in non-pigmented carrot storage root. In this study, the plastome was confirmed to occur in similar relative abundance (plastome–nuclear genome ratio) in yellow and orange carrot storage roots while dark orange storage roots had significantly higher plastome content than white cultivated carrots. In the leaf tissue of these same plants, the relative abundance of the plastome was similar across genotypes but was lower than the ratio of plastid to nuclear genome in the root tissue of pigmented storage rooted carrot. This study is the first quantification of the ratio of plastome to nuclear genome in storage root and confirms the presence of the plastome in both pigmented and non-pigmented carrot storage root tissue.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Dr. D. Kyle Willis for his assistance with the qPCR experiment and Dr. Dariusz Grzebelus for his correspondence and input. We also thank Marilyn Rivera for her help with the southern blot analysis. Megan Bowman was supported by the Gabelman-Seminis Distinguished Graduate Research Fellowship at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and USDA Specialty Crop Research Initiative award 2008-51180-04896 to PWS.

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Author notes

  1. Megan J. Bowman

    Present address: USDA-ARS Coastal Plains Soil, Water and Plant Research Center, 2611 West Lucas Street, Florence, SC, 29501, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Plant Breeding and Plant Genetics Program, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1575 Linden Drive, Madison, WI, 53706, USA

    Megan J. Bowman & Philipp W. Simon

  2. Department of Horticulture, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1575 Linden Drive, Madison, WI, 53706, USA

    Philipp W. Simon

  3. Vegetable Crops Research Unit, USDA-ARS, 1575 Linden Drive, Madison, WI, 53706, USA

    Philipp W. Simon

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  1. Megan J. Bowman
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Correspondence to Philipp W. Simon.

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Bowman, M.J., Simon, P.W. Quantification of the Relative Abundance of Plastome to Nuclear Genome in Leaf and Root Tissues of Carrot (Daucus carota L.) Using Quantitative PCR. Plant Mol Biol Rep 31, 1040–1047 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11105-012-0539-y

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