News Release

MADISON, WI, JUNE 22, 2011 -- The melon fruit is an important crop and a model system for studying the genetics of fruit development. Characteristics of melon fruits vary greatly. The purpose of this work was to enhance the study of gene expression during fruit development and ripening of melon fruits, and discover the genes that determine fruit quality traits.

A team of researchers from the Agricultural Research Organization of Israel in collaboration from Evogene, Israel, report a method to obtain high quality ribonucleic acid (RNA). RNA acts as a messenger carrying instructions from DNA responsible for the combination of proteins, which determine traits.   

One major factor that determines the precision of this method is the quality of the genetic material used in research. Often, an amplification process is used to obtain the required quantities of genetic material when the source tissue is limited. However, a single round of this process can greatly distort the data.

Non-amplified data was gathered in the reported study to obtain an accurate representation of gene expression during fruit development in the fleshy melon fruit. Nurit Katzir, a researcher from the Agricultural Research Organization of Israel, explained that the results from this study indicate high-quality genetic information for future research can be obtained from mature fleshy fruits. This is significant, as these fruits are notorious for difficulties in accurate genetic extraction.

The data obtained in this study was validated by a comparative amplification process, and is currently being used to identify the genes responsible for traits of melon fruits, such as their development, ripening, and overall quality.

The research was supported by the Office of the Chief Scientist in the Israeli Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Labor through Magnet Program and the Israeli Bio-TOV Consortium. The full article was published in the latest issue of The Plant Genome.

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