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Article|01 Feb 2019|OPEN
PpERF3 positively regulates ABA biosynthesis by activating PpNCED2/3 transcription during fruit ripening in peach
Xiaobei Wang1,2 , Wenfang Zeng1 , Yifeng Ding1 , Yan Wang1 , Liang Niu1 , Jia-Long Yao1,3 , Lei Pan1 , Zhenhua Lu1 and Guochao Cui1 , Guohuai Li2 , , Zhiqiang Wang,1 ,
1Zhengzhou Fruit Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, 450009 Zhengzhou, China
2Key Laboratory of Horticultural Plant Biology, Ministry of Education, Huazhong Agricultural University, 430070 Wuhan, China
3The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Limited, Auckland, New Zealand
*Corresponding author. E-mail: liguohuai@mail.hzau.edu.cn,wangzhiqiang@caas.cn

Horticulture Research 6,
Article number: 19 (2019)
doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41438-018-0094-2
Views: 1029

Received: 11 Apr 2018
Revised: 15 Sep 2018
Accepted: 17 Sep 2018
Published online: 01 Feb 2019

Abstract

The plant hormone ethylene regulates ripening in climacteric fruits. The phytohormone abscisic acid (ABA) affects ethylene biosynthesis, but whether ethylene influences ABA biosynthesis is unknown. To explore this possibility, we investigated the interactions between the ABA biosynthesis genes PpNCED2/3 and the ethylene response transcription factor PpERF3 in peach fruit. The ABA content increased during fruit maturation and reached a peak at stage S4 III. The increase was greatly inhibited by the ethylene inhibitor 1-MCP, which also suppressed PpERF3 expression. PpERF3 shared a similar expression profile with PpNCED2/3, encoding a rate-limiting enzyme involved in ABA biosynthesis, during fruit ripening. A yeast one-hybrid assay suggested that the nuclear-localized PpERF3 might bind to the promoters of PpNCED2/3. PpERF3 increased the expression of PpNCED2/3 as shown by dual-luciferase reporters, promoter-GUS assays and transient expression analyses in peach fruit. Collectively, these results suggest that ethylene promotes ABA biosynthesis through PpERF3’s regulation of the expression of ABA biosynthesis genes PpNCED2/3.