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Generation of expressed sequence tags from carob (Ceratonia siliqua L.) flowers for gene identification and marker development

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Abstract

Carob (Ceratonia siliqua L.) is a caesalpinoid legume tree showing labile sex expression. With the main aims of identifying flower-expressed genes and of developing specific markers, 1,056 clones from a complementary DNA library of carob flowers were bidirectionally sequenced. A total of 1,377 high-quality expressed sequence tags were clustered into 1,096 unigenes. Basic Local Alignment Search Tool and Gene Ontology functional annotation allowed to identify several agronomically important genes, such as those involved in flower development and sexual reproduction, response to stress, galactomannan synthesis, and hormone pathways. Genes involved in the ethylene biosynthesis and response were quantified in developing flowers of three sex genotypes (male, female, and hermaphrodite) using quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. The transcript levels of 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid oxidase, acting downstream in ethylene pathway, and Ethylene Insensitive 3 (EIN3)-like, a transcription factor involved in ethylene signaling, were directly correlated with maleness, indicating a possible role of ethylene in carob sex expression. Furthermore, the first set of carob genic microsatellites was developed, which might be useful for genotyping and genetic diversity analysis.

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Acknowledgments

Funding was provided by Research Program MiPAAF-CIPE; FRU.MED., Project PRO.VI.SUD; Publication no. 42.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Ortofloroarboricoltura e Tecnologie Agroalimentari, Sezione Arboricoltura, University of Catania, 95123, Catania, Italy

    Marco Caruso, Gaetano Distefano, Stefano La Malfa, Alessandra Gentile & Eugenio Tribulato

  2. Department of Botany and Plant Sciences, University of California, Riverside, CA, 92521, USA

    Xinrong Ye & Mikeal L. Roose

Authors
  1. Marco Caruso
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  2. Gaetano Distefano
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  3. Xinrong Ye
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  4. Stefano La Malfa
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  5. Alessandra Gentile
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  6. Eugenio Tribulato
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  7. Mikeal L. Roose
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alessandra Gentile.

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Communicated by J. Dean

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Table S1

Carob EST primers that were monomorphic and that produced excess stutter bands or alleles larger than 900 bp (DOC 44 KB)

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Caruso, M., Distefano, G., Ye, X. et al. Generation of expressed sequence tags from carob (Ceratonia siliqua L.) flowers for gene identification and marker development. Tree Genetics & Genomes 4, 869–879 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11295-008-0159-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11295-008-0159-8

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