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Fruit Quality Biology Research Team revealed ERFs involved in post-deastringency softening of persimmon fruit

Date:2017-03-21 Hits:432

     Fruit quality biology research team revealed that hypoxia-responsive ERFs involved in post-deastringency softening of persimmon fruit. This paper entitled ‘Hypoxia-responsive ERFs involved in post-deastringency softening of persimmon fruit’ was published online at Plant Biotechnology Journal (DOI: 10.1111/pbi.12725) on March 17th, 2017. Dr Xueren Yin is the corresponding author and Ph.D. student Miaomiao Wang is the first author.

     China is the largest persimmon fruits producing country in the world, but most cultivated persimmon are astringent type. Artificial treatments have been developed to remove astringency, however, deastringency often accompanied by extensive softening, which vastly shorten shelf-life. Four DkERFs have been reported previously to be involved in persimmon fruit deastringency. In recent years, we developed and optimized the de-astringent and crispness-keeping methods ( 2 national invention patents have been authorized). Transcriptomics analysis to fruit softening revealed 35 cell wall metabolism genes and softening related DkERF transcription factors. Combining various cultivars and different treatments, we screened 8 candidated genes (Dkβ-gal1/4, DkEGase1, DkPE1/2, DkPG1, DkXTH9/10 ) and 3 DkERFs (DkERF8/16/19) genes, which showed significant correlations with post-deastringency fruit softening. Dual-luciferase assay and motif mutagenesis showed that DkERF8/16/19 could directly bind to DRE motif of DkXTH9 promoter and also had trans-activate effects. This result not only enriched the functions of hypoxia-responsive ERFs,but also provided key targets for improvement and optimization of de-astringent and crispness-keeping methods.

     This research was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program (SQ2016YFNC010081), National Natural Science Foundation of China (31372114; 31672204), etc.