A microRNA allele that emerged prior to apple domestication may underlie fruit size evolution |
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| Authors: | Jia‐Long Yao Juan Xu Amandine Cornille Sumathi Tomes Sakuntala Karunairetnam Zhiwei Luo Heather Bassett Claire Whitworth Jonathan Rees‐George Chandra Ranatunga Alodie Snirc Ross Crowhurst Ben Warren Cecilia Deng Satish Kumar David Chagné Vincent G. M. Bus Richard K. Volz Erik H. A. Rikkerink Susan E. Gardiner Tatiana Giraud Robin MacDiarmid Andrew P. Gleave |
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| Affiliation: | 1. The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Limited, Auckland, New Zealand;2. Key Laboratory of Horticultural Plant Biology (Ministry of Education), Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, Hubei, China;3. Ecologie, Systématique et Evolution, Université Paris‐Sud, Orsay, France;4. CNRS, Orsay, France;5. The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Limited, Palmerston North, New Zealand;6. The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Limited, Havelock North, New Zealand;7. School of Biological Sciences, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand |
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| Abstract: | The molecular genetic mechanisms underlying fruit size remain poorly understood in perennial crops, despite size being an important agronomic trait. Here we show that the expression level of a microRNA gene (miRNA172) influences fruit size in apple. A transposon insertional allele of miRNA172 showing reduced expression associates with large fruit in an apple breeding population, whereas over‐expression of miRNA172 in transgenic apple significantly reduces fruit size. The transposon insertional allele was found to be co‐located with a major fruit size quantitative trait locus, fixed in cultivated apples and their wild progenitor species with relatively large fruit. This finding supports the view that the selection for large size in apple fruit was initiated prior to apple domestication, likely by large mammals, before being subsequently strengthened by humans, and also helps to explain why signatures of genetic bottlenecks and selective sweeps are normally weaker in perennial crops than in annual crops. |
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| Keywords: |
APETALA2
domestication fruit size Malus × domestica microRNA |
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