Peach fruit flesh texture regulatory gene revealed by Chinese scientists

??? How to keep the flesh of melting-flesh peaches from softening rapidly and extend the storage time of peaches has long been a major problem troubling peach growers in China. Recently, the innovation team led by researcher Wang Zhiqiang of the Zhengzhou Fruit Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences successfully revealed the peach fruit flesh texture regulatory gene. The discovery of this gene may solve the problem for peach growers. The research results were published in the latest issue of the internationally renowned journal Journal of Experimental Botany.

It is understood that most of the main peach varieties currently cultivated in China are melting-flesh peaches. After ripening, the flesh of such peaches softens rapidly, is not resistant to storage and transport, and is also prone to disease infection, which causes serious economic losses to fruit growers, whereas the fruit of stony-hard peaches does not have this problem. Therefore, scientists believe that studying the molecular mechanism underlying the formation of the flesh texture traits of stony-hard peaches and identifying the key genes that determine or regulate the formation of flesh texture traits will help create new peach varieties that are resistant to storage and transport. After years of research, Wang Zhiqiang's research team successfully screened out the rate-limiting enzyme gene, the flavin-containing monooxygenase gene, and confirmed that it plays an important role in regulating peach fruit flesh texture.

It is reported that this research has expanded people's understanding of the molecular mechanism of peach fruit ripening and softening, and at the same time the molecular markers for the stony-hard trait that have been developed have important application value in breeding new peach varieties resistant to storage and transport.