© 2006 Heron Publishing—Victoria, Canada
Differential expression of dehydrin in flower buds of two Japanese apricot cultivars requiring different chilling requirements
for bud break
Hisayo Yamane (1,5), Yukinobu Kashiwa (1), Eiko Kakehi (1), Keizo Yonemori (1), Hitoshi Mori (2), Kyohei Hayashi (3,6), Kazuya Iwamoto (3,7), Ryutaro Tao (1) and Ikuo Kataoka (4)
1. Laboratory of Pomology, Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606–8502, Japan / 2. Graduate School of Bioagricultural Sciences, Nagoya University, Nagoya, 464–8601, Japan / 3. Horticultural Experiment Center of Wakayama Research Center of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries, Gobo 644–0024, Japan / 4. Faculty of Agriculture, Kagawa University, Miki, 761–0795, Japan / 5. Corresponding author (hyamane@kais.kyoto-u.ac.jp) / 6. Laboratory of Ume, Fruit Tree Experiment Station, Wakayama Research Center of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Minabe
645–0021, Japan / 7. Agriculture Expansion Division, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Promotions Department, Arida Promotions Bureau, Wakayama
prefecture, Arida 643–0004, Japan / Received September 22, 2005; accepted March 1, 2006; published online September 1, 2006
Summary
In this study, we investigated seasonal changes in protein profiles in dormant flower buds of Japanese apricot (Prunus mume Siebold Zucc.) cultivars ‘Ellching’, from subtropical Taiwan, and ‘Nanko’, from temperate Japan. One protein, isolated by
two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of flower bud extracts, was shown by peptide sequencing to be a dehydrin
(the group of D-11 LEA (late embryogenesis-abundant) proteins). Patterns of dehydrin protein and transcript accumulation differed
between the cultivars, with greater accumulations and longer persistence in ‘Nanko’ than in ‘Ellching’. These differences
correspond with the greater requirement for chilling to break flower bud dormancy in ‘Nanko’ than in ‘Ellching’. Our study
supports the findings of earlier work comparing dehydrin expression in the bark tissue of the evergreen and deciduous peach
(Prunus persica (L.) Batsch) genotypes, and suggests that the role of dehydrin during the dormant season is common to all Prunus species.
Keywords:
dormancy, LEA, protein profiles, Prunus mume.
