title: Transcriptome profiling of Cucumis melo fruit development and ripening.
abstract: Hami melon (Cucumis melo) is the most important melon crop grown in the north-western provinces of China. In order to elucidate the genetic and molecular basis of developmental changes related to size, flesh, sugar and sour content, we performed a transcriptome profiling of its fruit development. Over 155 000 000 clean reads were mapped to MELONOMICS genome, yielding a total of 23 299 expressed genes. Of these, 554 genes were specifically expressed in flowers, and 3260 genes in fruit flesh tissues. The 7892 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were related to fruit development and mediated diverse metabolic processes and pathways; 83 DEGs and 13 DEGs were possibly associated with sucrose and citric acid accumulation, respectively. The quantitative real-time PCR results showed that six out of eight selected candidate genes displayed expression trends similar to our DEGs. This study profiled the gene expression related to different growing stages of flower and fruit at the whole transcriptome level to provide an insight into the regulatory mechanism underlying Hami melon fruit development.
authors.affiliation: Hami Melon Research Center, Xinjiang Academy of Agricultural Science , Urumqi 830091, China.
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: The Department of Cucurbitaceae Vegetables Genetics and Breeding, Institute of Vegetables and Flowers of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences , Beijing 100081, China.
authors.forename: Huaisong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Hami Melon Research Center, Xinjiang Academy of Agricultural Science , Urumqi 830091, China.
authors.forename: Hongping
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yi
authors.affiliation: Hami Melon Research Center, Xinjiang Academy of Agricultural Science , Urumqi 830091, China.
authors.forename: Wenqiang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhai
authors.affiliation: Hami Melon Research Center, Xinjiang Academy of Agricultural Science , Urumqi 830091, China.
authors.forename: Guangzhi
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: The Department of Cucurbitaceae Vegetables Genetics and Breeding, Institute of Vegetables and Flowers of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences , Beijing 100081, China.
authors.forename: Qiushi
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Fu