A WHITE-FRUIT DUCHESNEA INDICA GENOTYPE IMPAIRED IN THE ANS GENE EXPRESSION

DEBES, MARIO A.; GRELLET, CARLOS F.; ARIAS, MARTA E.; DÏAZ RICCI, JUAN C.

Tafí del Valle. Tucumán

Jornada; 26º Jornada de la Asociación de Biología de Tucumán; 2009

Asociación de Biología de Tucumán

Flavonoids play important roles in flowers and fruits color development. The red colors of flowers are mainly produced by anthocyanins and betacyanins and the chalcone synthase (CHS), chalcone isomerase (CHI), flavanone-3-hydroxylase (f3h), dihydroflavonol 4-reductase (DFR) and anthocyanidin synthase (ANS) correspond to the core enzymes involved in the main branch of the anthocyanin pathway. Total RNA was extracted of mature fruits from Fragaria x ananassa, F. vesca, Duchesnea chrysantha, red-fruit D. indica and white-fruits D. indica. cDNA obtained, was used as template to perform PCR, using specific primers obtained annotated sequences from Genbank. The glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) was used as the control gene. Results showed similar expression level of the genes GAPDH, CHS, F3H and DFR in all fruits analyzed. However the gene ANS exhibited a significant expression reduction in white-fruits D. Indica with respect to the red fruit species. D. chrysantha  (another white-fruit species) presented lower level of ANS gene expression, indicating that this enzyme is also under expressed. Our results indicate that the expression of ANS is strongly associated to the red-fruit character, therefore the lack of red pygmentation in fruits can be directly attributed to the lack of ANS activity.