1. Mutation in the gene encoding1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate synthase 4(CitACS4) led to andromonoecy in watermelon
- Author
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Honghe Sun, Jianting Shi, Guoyi Gong, Shouwei Tian, Yi Ren, Haiying Zhang, Gaojie Ji, Junping Gao, Shaogui Guo, Huolin Shen, Yong Xu, and Jie Zhang
- Subjects
0106 biological sciences ,0301 basic medicine ,Genetics ,Mutation ,Gynoecium ,biology ,Citrullus lanatus ,Stamen ,food and beverages ,Plant Science ,medicine.disease_cause ,biology.organism_classification ,01 natural sciences ,Biochemistry ,General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology ,03 medical and health sciences ,030104 developmental biology ,medicine ,biology.protein ,Coding region ,1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate synthase ,Indel ,Gene ,010606 plant biology & botany - Abstract
Although it has been reported previously that ethylene plays a critical role in sex determination in cucurbit species, how the andromonoecy that carries both the male and hermaphroditic flowers is determined in watermelon is still unknown. Here we showed that the watermelon gene 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate synthase 4 (CitACS4), expressed specifically in carpel primordia, determines the andromonoecy in watermelon. Among four single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs) and one InDel identified in the coding region of CitACS4, the C364W mutation located in the conserved box 6 was co-segregated with andromonoecy. Enzymatic analyses showed that the C364W mutation caused a reduced activity in CitACS4. We believe that the reduced CitACS4 activity may hamper the programmed cell death in stamen primordia, leading to the formation of hermaphroditic flowers.
- Published
- 2016