Identification and partial characterization of SEPALLATA genes in coffee arabica / IdentificaÃÃo e caracterizaÃÃo parcial de genes SEPALLATA em cafà arÃbica

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2009

RESUMO

Coffee is one of the most important international commodity, produced in more than sixty countries and it is classified as one of the five agricultural exportation most valued in development countries. One of the biggest difficulties in this crop is the heterogeneity of the flowering process, therefore, imbalance on the fruit maturation, which makes the harvesting more difficult to be done, damaging grains quality. Since coffee has the economic importance and its difficulties presented, this research aims at understanding some genetic factors composing this pathway, since flowering process depends on a balanced expression of a complex network of genes. SEPALLATA genes constitute part of this pathway and are responsible for determination of the four floral whorls. SEPALLATA together with other genes determinate the floral meristem identity. Therefore the aim of this work was to study SEPALLATA genes in Coffea arabica. Firstly, in silico analyses were done to identify these genes in coffee genome, by CAFEST database. Three putative SEP genes were identified and submitted to analysis of the motifs, domains, grouped in phylogenetic tree and expression analysis by electronic Northern. The obtained sequences presented all the characteristic domains of this gene family, when grouped with SEP genes of other species, and as expected, the expression was observed in flower and developing fruits libraries. The parcial characterization was performed at the Central Laboratory of Molecular Biology of the Federal University of Lavras, UFLA. Specific primers were designated to clone the genes and the amplicons were submitted to cloning, sequencing, and compared with SEP genes obtained from the in silico analyses. By this comparison, two sequences were considered similar and characterized as putative SEP1/2 and SEP3 genes. In addition to that, an expression analysis by qRT-PCR was performed, where it could be observed the expression in flower and fruit tissues. These analyses provided the identification and characterization of, at least, two coffee SEP genes, however, it is necessary more investigation such as in situ expression and mutants to shed light on the SEP genes function in coffee.

ASSUNTO(S)

rna extraction clonagem flowering coffea arabica cloning bioinformÃtica florescimento bioinformatics extraÃÃo rna genetica vegetal coffea arabica

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