ISHS Acta Horticulturae 492: I International Symposium on Cucurbits
APPROACHES TO ISOLATING THE GENE M/M FOR FEMALENESS IN CUCUMIS SATIVUS L. |
| Authors: | T. ENGELKE, H. MIBUS, T. TATLIOGLU |
| Keywords: | Cucumber, gynoecious, sex inheritance, flower development, DDRT-PCR |
| Abstract:
One of the most important purposes of breeding programmes of Cucumis sativus is the development of mainly or purely female flowering varieties. The selective development of the staminate initials in the flowers of Cucumis sativus is controlled by the gene M/m in dominant condition. The isolation of this gene and its transfer into other species without a purely female sex expression could offer new breeding strategies. For that reason we have started with the isolation of the gene M/m using the Nonradioactive Differential Display Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (DDRT-PCR). This method identifies differentially expressed mRNA-species. In order to get differences in transcription patterns mainly caused by the gene M/m, nearly isogenic lines differing in female and hermaphroditic flowering were established. In grafting experiments no influence to the flower development between the female and hermaphroditic parts of the grafts could be shown. Therefore, a transportation of M/m-related gene products from other parts of the plant, like roots or leaves, to the flowers can be excluded. Thus, the gene M/m has to be expressed in the flower-differentiating tissue. Founded on these results, young buds of female and hermaphroditic plants were analysed in DDRT-PCR. The resulting band patterns showed polymorphic fragments with a frequency of 0.15%. In further investigations this polymorphism will have to be verified in Southern- and Northern-hybridisation. Then, they will be used in the screening of a cDNA-library in order to get the complete gene-sequence of the gene M/m. | |
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