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    Home > Food News > Food Articles > The evolution of the sweet gene is "the same way"

    The evolution of the sweet gene is "the same way"

    • Last Update: 2021-02-28
    • Source: Internet
    • Author: User
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    always pleasant to eat melons because they are sweet and delicious. As the world's most popular fruit crop, melons and watermelons come from gourds.
    Recently, Nature-Genetics published two studies on the genome of melon crops by the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the Beijing Academy of Agricultural and Foran sciences and other domestic and foreign advantages, showing that melons and watermelons undergo different domestication processes and also complete the evolution of the fascinating "sweet gene", which can be described as "the same way". The findings also provide clues to understanding the evolutionary relationship between gourd crops.16 variants of cultivated melons that we usually buy on the market, and they are extremely diverse.Zhao Guangwei, the first author of the
    paper and an associate researcher at Zhengzhou Fruit Tree Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, told the China Science Daily that the diversity between variants is not only reflected in esopeal diversity, but also in ecological adaptability, which leads to the test material must be planted more (Henan, Hainan, Xinjiang) to be able to sample successfully.
    " requires multiple seasons of cultivation to collect all the materials. Some foreign-collected materials contain only sample DNA, which can also affect subsequent symptom data surveys. "The paper co-first author, the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenzhen Agricultural Genome Research Institute assistant researcher Jing Qun said.
    Despite the difficulties, Xu Yongyang, co-author of the paper and a researcher at zhengzhou Fruit Tree Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said that the melon research team still analyzed the genome variation of more than a thousand melon species resources over a five-year period and identified more than 5.6 million SNPs. The group structure analysis found that melons experienced at least three separate domestication events, two in India and one in Africa.
    " melon has been controversial. Xu Yongyang explained that because Africa has the largest number of melon wild closeline species, and its chromosome number is the same as melons, so initially the academic community believed that melon domestication occurred in Africa. Yet genomic evidence in recent years suggests that "Africa has only domesticated a particular type of African primitive melon, tibish."
    , the African melon is mainly distributed near Sudan and is not involved in the genetic and modification of the melons behind it, and is mainly used in Africa.
    india is an important origin/secondary origin center for gourd crops and the domestication center for the cultivation of melons in the world today. This result shows that the subsethics of thick-skin melons (e.g. hami melons) and thin-skin melons (e.g. melons) are domesticated from different wild groups in India, respectively. The former has a thicker flesh, no bitter taste after maturation, and is distributed all over the world, while the latter has a thinner fruit, and the young fruit and the ripe part will have a bitter taste, mainly distributed in East Asia.
    further study found that the two subsethics domesticated different genes in the process of losing bitter taste, sour taste, and large fruit domestication, and there were different domestication mechanisms. Practice group said.
    Zhao Guangwei, they conducted genetic positioning studies on 16 important agro-characteristics related to the quality, yield and morphology of melons, and located more than 200 candidate genes and locations.
    , thick-skin melons domesticated the hulutin B synthase gene (CmBi), while thin-skin melons domesticated to regulate the transcription factor (CmBt) formed by bitter taste, resulting in differences in bitterness.
    and flesh color are important indicators that affect fruit quality and directly affect consumer preferences. Through genome-wide correlation analysis and other technical means, they located genes associated with peel and flesh color formation, which could be used in the future to excavate key variation site, develop molecular markers, and make early and rapid selection in the breeding process."crystal ball belt light smoke green, jade cage containing cold flame red", "cool competition for ice and snow sweet honey, to eliminate the temperature of the tea poured." Since ancient times, watermelons are well-loved summer products, the people left a lot of praise of watermelon poetry songs, it can be seen that watermelon fruit color and sugar content has been the key quality of attention.
    watermelon was domesticated about 4,000 years ago. Xu Yong, chief scientist of the National Watermelon Industry Technology System and co-author of the paper, said that they joined forces with Liu Wenge, researcher of Zhengzhou Fruit Tree Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and other domestic and foreign scientific research teams to use single-molecule sequencing, optical map and Hi-C three-dimensional genome joint analysis, completed a new generation of watermelon genome fine mapping and domestication history analysis, the first systematic revealed the molecular mechanism of watermelon fruit quality evolution.
    Shaogui, the first author of the paper and a researcher at the Beijing Academy of Agricultural and Forthan Sciences, said they further analyzed more than 400 species resources for genomic variation and identified nearly 20 million SNPs.Liu Wenge, co-author of the
    paper, told China Science that through a group structure analysis, they found for the first time that of the seven species of watermelon genus, the Nodan watermelon is the oldest, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa. Two branches, one of which is medicinal watermelons, were subsequently evolved through natural selection, mainly in desert and semi-arid regions of northern Africa, south-west and Central Asia, often grown as medicinal herbs. Another branch is watermelons, widely grown in southern Africa and used mostly for animal feed. Between the two branches, there are two rare species, the hot watermelon and the missing watermelon, which are transition types. Subsequently, after early human and animal foraging activities of the choice of domestication, the formation of sticky seed watermelon.
    " sticky-seed watermelon is the closest population to the kinship of modern cultivated watermelons. The results of the group structure analysis show that they share common ancestral bloodlines. The bitter taste of the fruit of the sticky-seeded watermelon gradually disappeared and began to accumulate sugar, reflecting an important stage in the evolution from wild watermelon to cultivated watermelon. Guo Shaogui said that human beings began to consciously domesticate watermelon improvement, fruit quality is getting better and better, the color is gradually enriched, and gradually formed a modern edible cultivation of watermelon.
    the process of domestication, watermelon resistance is getting weaker and weaker. "We have found that drug watermelons containing multiple resistance genes, as well as genomic segments specific to feed watermelons, have infiltrated the genomes of modern cultivated watermelons, indicating that we are now targeting the use of resistance to wild watermelons to improve resistance to modern cultivated watermelons." Xu Yong said.
    Through systematic research, they not only clarified the selection of domestication patterns for the key gene LCYB in watermelon fruit color, but also used the latest gene editing techniques to confirm for the first time the key role of the α-semi-lactose glycoside enzyme gene involved in the unloading of photosynthelizing products in the accumulation of watermelon fruit sugar, revealing for the first time the secret of the "sweet gene" domestication of watermelons. At the same time, they also obtained candidate gene bits that determine the co-evolution of watermelon sugar content and color. "These key genes are very important for us to grow more delicious watermelons in the future." Xu Yong said. " is consistent with previous studies, which found that melons and watermelons evolved in convergence in the loss of bitter taste. Nature-Genetics also displodited comments from three German scientists, Murukarthick Jayakodi, Mona Schreiber and Martin Mascher. They believe that two genetic studies have revealed how domestication alters the fruit quality characteristics of melons and watermelons. These studies used methods such as population genetics and QTLs positioning to study the domestication history of melons and watermelons and provide important data support for breeders.
    " in the current known genome of melon crops, melons retain the largest number of ancient genomic nuclei, is an important basis for the study of gourd crop genome evolution and comparative genomics. It also provides valuable clues for the location of conservative functional genes between gourd crops. Practice group said.
    Liu Wenge said that in the evolutionary relationship between the various species of gourd crops, melons and cucumbers are the same genus of melons, and their relationship is closer. After their common ancestor split from the watermelon ancestry, melons experienced three separate domestication events, while watermelons experienced a relatively continuous evolution from wild watermelons to cultivated watermelons. "The two went through a completely different evolutionary history, and in the end they both formed sweet and delicious fruits." At the same time, the study of watermelons and melons will be more helpful to deeply understand and reveal the secret of the "sweet gene" domestication of watermelon melons.
    as the chief scientist of the national watermelon industry technology system, Xu Yong organized and promoted the close collaboration between the two crops, watermelon and melon, in genomics research. He told the China Science Daily that with the support of major projects of national ministries such as the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and the Ministry of Science and Technology, Chinese scientists have made rich research foundations, experience accumulation and material reserves in the field of watermelon and melon genomics and fruit quality research.
    , a researcher at the Shenzhen Agricultural Genome Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, is a co-author of two papers. In an interview with China Science Daily, he pointed out that the species resources are the basis of breeding, and these two achievements provide a new theoretical framework and histological data for the study of melon species resources, as well as a large number of genetic resources and selection tools for the molecular breeding of melons. The results of the whole genome variation map of watermelon and melon have been completed at the same time, which provides sufficient data and material support for further study of watermelon melon comparative genome, and then deeply understanding and understanding the evolution mechanism of fruit quality of the same work between the two.
    related paper information:

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