Molecular aspects of dormancy in peach (Prunus persica [L.] Batsch.)

Abstract

Dormancy is one of the most important adaptive mechanisms developed by perennial plants, in order to survive the low temperatures of autumn and winter in temperate climates. The study of the genes regulated during dormancy release is crucial to understand the process, with the final objective of the development of new varieties with a better adaptation to certain environments; in particular in the Mediterranean area. The general aim of this work is to understand the molecular and physiological mechanisms underlying the maintenance and release of seasonal dormancy in peach. The first part of this work is focused on the identification of peach genes related to dormancy release by suppression subtractive hybridization (SSH) and microarray hybridization. A significant number of genes identified in this work were homologous to ABA and drought related genes from other species. Our data contribute to highlight a prominent role of ABA in dormancy processes and also uncover elements of the ABA and drought regulatory response in peach, as an ABA-INSENSITIVE5 (ABI5) binding protein (AFP)-like, a dehydration-responsive element (DRE)-binding protein (DREB2C)-like, a calcium-binding annexin, and several genes regulated by stress signalling pathways. Other identified genes were also evaluated to assess the chilling requirement of cultivars by analysis of expression showing a very good correlation between the expression pattern of DAM5, together with other transcripts (BD396, DB247, SB280 and PpB63) and the chilling requirements values of five different varieties ('Big Top', 'Catherina', 'Fergold', 'Maruja' and 'Springlady') measured following Utah and Dynamic models. Furthermore, a study of chromatin modifications associated to dormancy release in the DAM6 gene is presented. A ChIP analysis of DAM6 promoter and structural gene revealed chromatin modification events similar to those observed in vernalization of Arabidopsis and cereals.