Skip to main content
  • Published:

The DefH9-iaaM-containing construct efficiently induces parthenocarpy in cucumber

Abstract

Parthenocarpy (seedless fruits) is a desirable trait that has been achieved in many plant cultivars. We generated parthenocarpic cucumber fruits by introducing the chimeric DefH9-iaaM construct into the cucumber genome using an Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated protocol. The construct consists of the DefH9 promoter from Antirrhinum majus and the iaaM coding sequence from Pseudomonas syringae. Transgenic plants were obtained from nine independent transformation events: half of these were tetraploid and did not produce seeds following self-pollination, while the remaining half were capable of displaying parthenocarpy in the subsequent reproductive generation. Of the fruits produced by the transgenic lines, 70–90% were parthenocarpic. The segregation of the marker gene in the transgenic T1 progeny indicated single gene inheritance. The seed set in the transgenic lines and their F1 hybrids was lower than in the non-transgenic control plants. Some of the methodological details and the practical significance of the results are discussed.

References

  1. Denna, D.W. Effects of genetic parthenocarpy and gynoecious flowering habit on fruit production and growth of cucumber Cucumis sativus L. J. Amer. Soc. Hortic. Sci. 98 (1973) 602–604.

    Google Scholar 

  2. Ponti, O.M.B. and Garretsen, F. Inheritance of parthenocarpy in pickling cucumbers (Cucumis sativus L.) and linkage with other characters. Euphytica 25 (1976) 633–642.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Sun, Z., Lower, L.M. and Staub, J.E. Generation means analysis of parthenocarpic characters in a processing cucumber (Cucumis sativus) population, In: Proceedings of Cucurbitaceae 2004, the 8th Eucarpia Meetings on Cucurbit Genetics and Breeding, Olomouc, Czech Republic, A. Lebeda and H.S. Paris (eds); (2004) 365–371.

  4. Rotino, G.L., Perri, E., Zottini, M., Sommer, H. and Spena, A. Genetic engineering of parthenocarpic plants. Nat. Biotechnol. 15 (1997) 1398–1401.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Varoquaux, F., Branvillain, R., Delseny, M. and Gallois, P. Less is better: new approaches for seedless fruit production. TIBTECH 18 (2000) 233–239.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Ficcadenti, N., Sestili, S., Pandolfini, T., Cirillo, C.H., Rotino, G.L. and Spena, A. Genetic engineering of parthenocarpic fruit development in tomato. Mol. Breed. 5 (1999) 463–470.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Pandolfini, T., Rotino, G.L., Camerini, S., Defez, R. and Spena, A. Optimisation of transgene action at the post-transcriptional level: high quality parthenocarpic fruits in industrial tomatoes. BMC Biotechnol. 2 (2002) 1.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Carmi, N., Salts, Y., Shabati, S., Pilowsky, M., Barg, R. and Dedicova, B. Transgenic parthenocarpy due to specific over-sensitization of the ovary to auxin. Acta Hortic. 447 (1997) 597–601.

    Google Scholar 

  9. Sarmento, G.G., Alpert, K.B., Punja, Z.K. and Tang, F.A. Transformation of pickling cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) by Agrobacterium tumefaciens and expression of kanamycin resistance in regenerated transgenic plants. J. Cell. Bioch. Supplement 13D (1989) 268.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Trulson, A.J., Simpson, R.B. and Shahin, E.A. Transformation of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) with Agrobacterium rhizogenes. Theor. Appl. Genet. 73 (1986) 11–15.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Chee, P.P. and Slightom, J.L. Transformation of cucumber tissues by microprojectile bombardment: identification of plants containing functional and non-functional transferred genes. Gene 118 (1992) 255–260.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Yin, Z., Pląder, W., Wiśniewska, A., Szwacka, M. and Malepszy, S. Transgenic cucumber — a current state, Folia Hortic. 17 (2005) 73–90.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Chee, P.P. and Slightom, J.L. Transfer and expression of Cucumber Mosaic Virus coat protein gene in the genome of Cucumis sativus. J. Amer. Soc. Hortic. Sci. 116 (1991) 1098–1102.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Nishibayashi, S., Hayakawa, T., Nakajima, T., Suzuki, M. and Kaneko, H. CMV protection in transgenic cucumber plants with an introduced CMV-O cp gene. Theor. Appl. Genet. 93 (1996) 672–678.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Lee, G.P., Kim, C.S., Ryu, K.H. and Rark, K.W. Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of Cucumis sativus expressing the coat protein gene of zucchini green mottle mosaic virus (ZGMMV). Proceedings of XXVI th International Horticultural Congress, Metro Toronto Convention Centre, August 12, 2002. Symposium 11, Asian plants with unique horticulture potential, genetic resources, cultural practices and utilization, S11-P11 (2002) 300.

  16. Raharijo, S.H.T., Hernadez, M.O., Zhang, Y.Y. and Punja, Z.K. Transformation of picking cucumber with chitinase-encoding genes using Agrobacterium tumefaciens. Plant Cell Rep. 15 (1996) 591–596.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Tabei, Y., Kitade, S., Nishizawa, Y., Kikuchi, N., Kayano, T., Hibi, T. and Akutsu, K. Transgenic cucumber plants harboring a rice chitinase gene exhibit enhanced resistance to gray mold (Botrytis cinerea). Plant Cell Rep. 17 (1998) 159–164.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Yin, Z., Pawłowicz, I., Malepszy, S. and Rorat, T. Transcriptional expression of a Solanum sogarandinum GT-Dhn10 gene fusion in cucumber and its correlation with chilling tolerance in transgenic seedlings, Cell Mol. Biol. Lett. 9 (2004) 891–902.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Yin, Z., Rorat, T., Szabala, B.M., Ziółkowska, A. and Malepszy, S. Expression of a Solanum sogarandium SK3 type dehydrin enhances cold tolerance in transgenic cucumber seedlings, Plant Sci. (2006) 1164–1172.

  20. Szwacka, M., Krzymowska, M., Osuch, A., Kowalczyk, M.E. and Malepszy, S. Variable properties of transgenic cucumber plants containing the thaumatin II gene from Thaumatococcus danielli. Acta Physiol. Plant. 24 (2002) 173–185.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Lee, H.S., Kwon, E.J., Kwon, S.Y., Jeong, Y.J., Lee, E.M., Jo, M.H., Kim, H.S., Woo, I.S., Atsuhiko, S., Kazuya, Y. and Kwak, S.S. Transgenic cucumber fruits that produced elevated level of an anti-aging superoxide dismutase. Mol. Breed. 11 (2003) 213–220.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  22. Gal-On, A., Wolf, D., Antignus, Y., Patlis, L., Ryu Hyun, K., Eun Min, B., Pearlsman, M., Lachman, O., Gaba, W., Wang, Y., Moshe Shiboleth, Y., Yang, J. and Zelcer, A. Transgenic cucumbers harboring the 54-kDa putative gene of Cucumber fruit mottle mosaic tobamovirus are highly resistant to viral infection and protect non-transgenic scions from soil infection. Transgenic Res. 14 (2005) 81–93.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. An, G. Development of plant promoter expression vectors and their use for analysis of differential activity of nopaline synthase promoter in transformed tobacco cells. Plant Physiol. 81 (1986) 86–91.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  24. ładyżyński, M., Burza, W. and Malepszy, S. Relationship between somaclonal variation and type of culture in cucumber, Euphytica 125 (2002) 349–356.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Scott, D.M., Manorama, C.J. and Richard, M.A. Removal of polysaccharides from plant DNA by ethanol precipitation. Biotechniques 17 (1994) 274–276.

    Google Scholar 

  26. Biriukova, N. and Maslovskaya, E. The influence of cultivation conditions on parthenocarpy of cucumber, In: Proceedings of Cucurbitaceae 2004, the 8th EUCARPIA Meeting on Cucurbit Genetics and Breeding (Lebeda A. and Paris H.S. Eds.), Palacky University Olomouc, (2004) 51–56.

  27. Mackiewicz, H. and Malepszy, S. Obtaining and characterization of tetraploid forms in cucumber — Cucumis sativus L. var. sativus and hardwickii Alef, Folia Hortic. 8 (1996) 3–10.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Stefan Malepszy.

Additional information

This paper is dedicated to Prof. Juergen Grunewaldt from Hannover on the occasion of his retirement.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Yin, Z., Malinowski, R., Ziółkowska, A. et al. The DefH9-iaaM-containing construct efficiently induces parthenocarpy in cucumber. Cell. Mol. Biol. Lett. 11, 279–290 (2006). https://doi.org/10.2478/s11658-006-0024-4

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/s11658-006-0024-4

Key words