Understanding the climacteric vs non-climacteric fruit ripening mechanisms in melon using transcriptomic, metabolomic and reverse genetic approaches

Abstract

Melon is an attractive model species that may help to understand the molecular differences between non-climacteric and climacteric fruit ripening because it contains both types of genotypes. This proposal involves the simultaneous use of transcriptome and metabolome analysis in climacteric and non-climacteric melon lines in order to understand the molecular differences between both types of fruit ripening. A search and analysis of melon mutants in key genes in fruit ripening will also be performed. The TILLING and EcoTILLING technologies will enable the identification of mutants that do not have a distinctive visible phenotype. The discovery of such novel variants could directly lead to the creation of new melon hybrid cultivars with commercial interest, a task that will be undertaken by the two private partners that participate in this proposal.