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The isolation of the IGT family genes in Malus × domestica and their expressions in four idiotype apple cultivars

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Abstract

IGT family genes share the highly conserved motif GφL-(A/T) IGT in domain II and play an essential role in plant form. The tree architecture of apple (Malus × domestica Borkh.) affects fruit quality and yield. However, little information is available regarding IGT family genes in apple. Apple cultivars of four ideotypes (columnar, tip bearer, spur, and standard) were selected to characterize IGT family genes. Four IGT family members named MdoTAC1a, MdoTAC1b, MdoLAZY1, and MdoLAZY2 were found in the apple genome, sharing four conserved domains. In addition, MdoLAZY1 and MdoLAZY2 contain a fifth domain (EAR motif) at the C-terminus. There was no difference in the coding sequences of each gene in the four cultivars, but several mutated sites were found in their promoters. The four genes displayed lower expression levels in all tested tissues and organs of the columnar cultivar than in the other three cultivars, while expression levels of MdoTAC1a and MdoTAC1b in shoot tips and vegetative buds were highest in the standard cultivar, followed by spur, tip bearing, and columnar cultivars in decreasing order. These results indicate that IGT gene promoters are of great importance in the development of apple tree architecture and lay a theoretical basis for developing gene-specific markers for marker-assisted selection in breeding programs.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Bennet McComish, PhD, from Liwen Bianji, Edanz Editing China (www.liwenbianji.cn/ac), for editing the English text of a draft of this manuscript. This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project No. 31672109).

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  1. Department of Pomology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100094, China

    Limin Wang, Wenbo Cai, Chuanhui Du, Yan Fu, Xuan Xie & Yuandi Zhu

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  1. Limin Wang
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  2. Wenbo Cai
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  3. Chuanhui Du
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Correspondence to Yuandi Zhu.

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Data archiving statement

Sequence data has been deposited in the NCBI BankIt Database and has been made accessible using submission ID (2081437).

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Communicated by D. B. Neale

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Wang, L., Cai, W., Du, C. et al. The isolation of the IGT family genes in Malus × domestica and their expressions in four idiotype apple cultivars. Tree Genetics & Genomes 14, 46 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11295-018-1258-9

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