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Pak. J. Bot., 42(5): 3377-3386, 2010.

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ISOLATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF THREE ETHYLENE PERCEPTION ELEMENTS AND THEIR EXPRESSIONS DURING LONGAN FRUIT DEVELOPMENT

JIAN-FEI KUANG^1,2 , WANG-JIN LU² , YUE-MING JIANG¹ AND JIAN-YE CHEN²*

Abstract: Ethylene has long been regarded as the major regulator of fruit development. In the present work, three full-length cDNAs homologous to Arabidopsis ethylene perception element genes ethylene response1 (ETR1), ethylene response sensor1 (ERS1) and constitutive triple response1 (CTR1), designated as DlETR1, DlERS1 and DlCTR1, respectively, were isolated and characterized from fruit of longan, a non-climacteric fruit. Homology analysis showed that DlETR1 and DlERS1 proteins contained three N-terminal membrane-spanning domains and the conserved histidine kinase domain while DlCTR1 protein possessed a conserved serine/threonine kinase domain, an ATP binding site and a serine/threonine kinase catalytic site. Northern blotting demonstrated that mRNA levels of DlETR1and DlERS1 gradually decreased while DlCTR1 transcript increased steadily during fruit development. Furthermore, treatments with plant growth substances, abscisic acid (ABA) and ethrel, inhibited the accumulation of DlERS1 transcript. In addition, ABA treatment suppressed the expression of DlCTR1. Thus, DlETR1 and DlERS1 exhibited a different response to plant growth substances. It was suggested that DlETR1 and DlERS1 might play a role in the early stage of longan fruit development, whereas DlCTR1 was likely to be involved in fruit ripening.

¹South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, P.R. China

²Guangdong Key Laboratory for Postharvest Science, College of Horticultural Science, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, P.R. China