Miracle Fruit Pulp Transcriptomes Identify Genetic Variants in Support of Discovery Research and Breeding
Miracle fruit (Synsepalum dulcificum) is the botanical source of miraculin, a natural, noncaloric sweetener. Miracle fruit plants have a bush-like architecture and produce multiple flushes of attractive red berries each year. The berries consist of a large seed, opaque pulp, and brilliant red peel....
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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American Society for Horticultural Science (ASHS)
2023-08-01
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| Series: | Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://journals.ashs.org/jashs/view/journals/jashs/148/5/article-p201.xml |
| _version_ | 1797659114241785856 |
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| author | Vincent Njung’e Michael Lynhe Demesyeux Aureliano Bombarely Xingbo Wu Alan Chambers |
| author_facet | Vincent Njung’e Michael Lynhe Demesyeux Aureliano Bombarely Xingbo Wu Alan Chambers |
| author_sort | Vincent Njung’e Michael |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Miracle fruit (Synsepalum dulcificum) is the botanical source of miraculin, a natural, noncaloric sweetener. Miracle fruit plants have a bush-like architecture and produce multiple flushes of attractive red berries each year. The berries consist of a large seed, opaque pulp, and brilliant red peel. The pulp of the fruit contains a glycoprotein, miraculin, that binds to the tongue’s sweet receptors and induces a conformational change in response to acidic stimuli. Thus, a strong sweet sensation is imparted in the absence of sugars. The miracle fruit plant is becoming increasingly popular because of its taste-modifying properties, but the species lacks many of the breeding tools common to other crops. We report miracle fruit pulp transcriptomes from ‘Sangria’, ‘Vermilion’, ‘Flame’, and ‘Cherry’ morphotypes. A consensus transcriptome included 91,856 transcripts. Reads mapping to the miraculin gene had the highest representation in individual miracle fruit pulp transcriptomes. Other abundant transcripts primarily included Gene Ontology categories representing cellular components, nucleus and nucleic acid binding, and protein modification. The transcriptomes were used to design real-time quantitative reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) primers for actin, elongation factor 1α, and the miraculin gene. Analysis by qRT-PCR indicated that miracle fruit pulp and peel tissues had the highest abundance of miraculin transcripts, although other tissues such as leaf, root, and flower also had detectable levels of the target sequence. Overall, these results will support discovery research for miracle fruit and the eventual breeding of this species. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T18:10:09Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-64a9e564d2cb4373a1bd6f0c7e385f4e |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2327-9788 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T18:10:09Z |
| publishDate | 2023-08-01 |
| publisher | American Society for Horticultural Science (ASHS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science |
| spelling | doaj.art-64a9e564d2cb4373a1bd6f0c7e385f4e2023-10-16T17:29:05ZengAmerican Society for Horticultural Science (ASHS)Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science2327-97882023-08-011485201208https://doi.org/10.21273/JASHS05312-23Miracle Fruit Pulp Transcriptomes Identify Genetic Variants in Support of Discovery Research and BreedingVincent Njung’e Michael0Lynhe Demesyeux1Aureliano Bombarely2Xingbo Wu3Alan Chambers4University of FloridaUniversity of FloridaUniversitat Politècnica de ValènciaUniversity of FloridaUniversity of FloridaMiracle fruit (Synsepalum dulcificum) is the botanical source of miraculin, a natural, noncaloric sweetener. Miracle fruit plants have a bush-like architecture and produce multiple flushes of attractive red berries each year. The berries consist of a large seed, opaque pulp, and brilliant red peel. The pulp of the fruit contains a glycoprotein, miraculin, that binds to the tongue’s sweet receptors and induces a conformational change in response to acidic stimuli. Thus, a strong sweet sensation is imparted in the absence of sugars. The miracle fruit plant is becoming increasingly popular because of its taste-modifying properties, but the species lacks many of the breeding tools common to other crops. We report miracle fruit pulp transcriptomes from ‘Sangria’, ‘Vermilion’, ‘Flame’, and ‘Cherry’ morphotypes. A consensus transcriptome included 91,856 transcripts. Reads mapping to the miraculin gene had the highest representation in individual miracle fruit pulp transcriptomes. Other abundant transcripts primarily included Gene Ontology categories representing cellular components, nucleus and nucleic acid binding, and protein modification. The transcriptomes were used to design real-time quantitative reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) primers for actin, elongation factor 1α, and the miraculin gene. Analysis by qRT-PCR indicated that miracle fruit pulp and peel tissues had the highest abundance of miraculin transcripts, although other tissues such as leaf, root, and flower also had detectable levels of the target sequence. Overall, these results will support discovery research for miracle fruit and the eventual breeding of this species.https://journals.ashs.org/jashs/view/journals/jashs/148/5/article-p201.xmlgenomicsmiracle berrymiraculinquantitative reverse-transcription polymerase chain reactionsynsepalum dulcificum |
| spellingShingle | Vincent Njung’e Michael Lynhe Demesyeux Aureliano Bombarely Xingbo Wu Alan Chambers Miracle Fruit Pulp Transcriptomes Identify Genetic Variants in Support of Discovery Research and Breeding Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science genomics miracle berry miraculin quantitative reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction synsepalum dulcificum |
| title | Miracle Fruit Pulp Transcriptomes Identify Genetic Variants in Support of Discovery Research and Breeding |
| title_full | Miracle Fruit Pulp Transcriptomes Identify Genetic Variants in Support of Discovery Research and Breeding |
| title_fullStr | Miracle Fruit Pulp Transcriptomes Identify Genetic Variants in Support of Discovery Research and Breeding |
| title_full_unstemmed | Miracle Fruit Pulp Transcriptomes Identify Genetic Variants in Support of Discovery Research and Breeding |
| title_short | Miracle Fruit Pulp Transcriptomes Identify Genetic Variants in Support of Discovery Research and Breeding |
| title_sort | miracle fruit pulp transcriptomes identify genetic variants in support of discovery research and breeding |
| topic | genomics miracle berry miraculin quantitative reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction synsepalum dulcificum |
| url | https://journals.ashs.org/jashs/view/journals/jashs/148/5/article-p201.xml |
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