Expression of DORMANCY-ASSOCIATED MADS-BOX (DAM)-like genes in apple

• Published in: Biologia plantarum Vol. 59; no. 2; pp. 237 - 244
• Main Authors: Mimida, N, Saito, T, Moriguchi, T, Suzuki, A, Komori, S, Wada, M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer-Verlag 01-06-2015; Springer Netherlands; Institute of Experimental Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences
• Subjects: apples; Biomedical and Life Sciences; buds; dormancy; freezing; gene expression; genes; Life Sciences; loci; Malus domestica; malus × domestica; Original Papers; Plant Sciences; Prunus; quantitative polymerase chain reaction; rt-qpcr; temperature; winter; woody plants; RT-qPCR; gene expression; ×
• ISSN: 0006-3134; 1573-8264
• DOI: 10.1007/s10535-015-0503-4

Apple (Malus × domestica Borkh.) is a perennial woody plant that undergoes a period of dormancy (in cv. Jonathan between late September and mid-December) to survive freezing temperatures of winter. DORMANCY-ASSOCIATED MADS-BOX (DAM) genes play important roles in the regulation of growth cessation and terminal bud formation in peach. To understand the role of DAM orthologs in apple, we isolated and characterized four DAM-like genes (designated as MdDAMa, MdDAMb, MdDAMc, and MdDAMd) and monitored their expression in apical buds throughout the season by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction analyses. The transcription of MdDAMa peaked in October and that of MdDAMc was elevated from August to October, whereas MdDAMb and MdDAMd were practically undetectable. The tandemly arranged genes MdDAMa/MdDAMb and MdDAMc/MdDAMd were localized to chromosomes 16 and 8, respectively. Based on these observations, we infer that MdDAMa and MdDAMc acted in a dominant fashion on each locus and were correlated with the period of endodormancy.