Genomic organization and sequence polymorphism of a farnesyl diphosphate synthase gene in apples (Malus domestica Borkh.)

Abstract

Primer pairs were designed to amplify the genomic DNA sequence of the farnesyl diphosphate synthase (FPPS) gene by PCR. The PCR products were sequenced, spliced and compared to the cDNA sequence in the GenBank (accession No. AY083165). The genomic sequence and intron-exon organization of FPPS1 gene in the apple cultivar ‘Fuji’ were thus obtained. The FPPS1 genomic sequence has been registered in the GenBank (accession No. HM545312). It has 11 introns and 12 exons. The sizes of 11 introns were 559 bp, 108 bp, 144 bp, 114 bp, 84 bp, 690 bp, 373 bp, 168 bp, 87 bp, 91 bp and 97bp, and their phases were 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 2, 0, 0, 0, 0 and 0, respectively. The sizes of 12 exons were 111 bp, 25 bp, 116 bp, 87 bp, 117bp, 89 bp, 52 bp, 96 bp, 45 bp, 90 bp, 72 bp and>12 bp, respectively. Gene sequence comparison results of five apple cultivars indicated that the development of apple superficial scald was not influenced by the mutations in the exon sequence of FPPS1 gene. A 6-bp repeat unit deletion mutation and many SNP mutations in the introns, mainly in the introns of one allele, were identified in the apple scald-resistant cultivar ‘Golden Delicious’. This is the first report on the genomic organization and coding region polymorphism of FPPS gene in apples and other fruit trees.

Keywords

apple / farnesyl diphosphate synthase / genomic DNA / polymorphism / superficial scald

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the research foundation for PhD researchers in Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, China (No. 2006YBS011).

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