Identification of a seed maturation protein gene from Coffea arabica (CaSMP) and analysis of its promoter activity in tomato

Abstract

A seed maturation protein gene (CaSMP) from Coffea arabica is expressed in the endosperm of yellow/green fruits. The CaSMP promoter drives reporter expression in the seeds of immature tomato fruits. In this report, an expressed sequence tag-based approach was used to identify a seed-specific candidate gene for promoter isolation in Coffea arabica. The tissue-specific expression of the cognate gene (CaSMP), which encodes a yet uncharacterized coffee seed maturation protein, was validated by RT-qPCR. Additional expression analysis during coffee fruit development revealed higher levels of CaSMP transcript accumulation in the yellow/green phenological stage. Moreover, CaSMP was preferentially expressed in the endosperm and was down-regulated during water imbibition of the seeds. The presence of regulatory cis-elements known to be involved in seed- and endosperm-specific expression was observed in the CaSMP 5'-upstream region amplified by genome walking (GW). Additional histochemical analysis of transgenic tomato (cv. Micro-Tom) lines harboring the GW-amplified fragment (~ 1.4 kb) fused to uidA reporter gene confirmed promoter activity in the ovule of immature tomato fruits, while no activity was observed in the seeds of ripening fruits and in the other organs/tissues examined. These results indicate that the CaSMP promoter can be used to drive transgene expression in coffee beans and tomato seeds, thus representing a promising biotechnological tool.

Cloning and functional identification of a Chilo suppressalis‐inducible promoter of rice gene, OsHPL2

“…A promoter is a DNA sequence containing a variety of specific regulatory elements that regulates gene expression. 20,21 To date, studies in plants have focused on constitutive promoters (with no spatiotemporal or tissue-specific expression patterns), [22][23][24][25][26] tissuespecific promoters (with tissue-specific expression patterns), [27][28][29][30] and pathogen-inducible promoters (with disease stress-induced expression patterns). [31][32][33] Compared with the above promotor types, knowledge of insect-inducible promoters lags far behind, and to date, only a very few insect-inducible promoters have been reported.…”

Genetic control of the sensory quality of coffee beverage

“…Sucrose synthesis is usually catalyzed by SPS sucrose phosphate synthase, along with a specific phosphatase: SPP (EC 3.1.3.24), which hydrolyzes sucrose-6P into sucrose and SUS phosphate synthase which is more closely related to sucrose degradation. In addition to SUS, sucrose degradation can be catalyzed by invertases, being an irreversible reaction (QUINTERO et al, 2018). Geromel et al, 2006, identified two isoforms of SUS that perform different metabolic functions within the cell, being the genes CaSUS1 and CaSUS2.…”

“…Advances in molecular biology have contributed to help understand where the proteins that encode the synthesis of these compounds are formed in cells, which genes control the synthesis of these proteins, how cells communicate with each other, and how this whole process of communication, protein synthesis, gene expression can influence the development of characteristics related to the aroma and taste of coffee (QUINTERO et al, 2018).…”

Advances in Plant Breeding Strategies: Nut and Beverage Crops

“…In coffee, many candidate genes have been identified and some cloned and are currently being characterized. These include a caffeine biosynthesis gene (Ogita et al 2004;Satyanarayana et al 2005), a sucrose synthase gene (Leroy et al 2005), osmotic stress response genes (Hinniger et al 2006) genes for seed oil content (Simkin et al 2006), isoflavone reductase-like protein in Coffea arabica (Brandalise et al 2009), C. arabica BURP domain-containing gene for abiotic stress tolerance (Dinh and Kang, 2017), CaSMP, a seed maturation protein gene from C. arabica (Quintero et al 2018) and several pathogen resistance genes such as Mex-1 gene (Noir et al 2003) and the Ck-1 gene to CBD (Gichuru et al 2006). However, an efficient genetic transformation protocol is required to validate the structural and functional aspects of these intrinsic genes.…”