Plant & Animal Genome VI Conference

P8

ANALYSIS OF RANDOM cDNA CLONES FROM PEACH FRUITS AT VARIOUS DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES

National Institute of Fruit Tree science, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305, Japan

We have sequenced randomly selected cDNA clones from peach fruits (Prunus persica cv. Akatsuki) at various developmental stages in order to explore the genes expressing in peach fruit. Three different cDNA libraries were constructed from peach fruits at 20 days (initial developmental stage), 60 days (stone hardening stage), and 110 days (fruit maturing stage) after anthesis using CapFinder PCR cDNA Library Construction Kit (Clontech). The partial sequences of more than 300 cDNA clones were compared with GenBank database by Blastn or Blastx. At the maturing stage, some interesting clones thought to relate with ripening or expansion of peach fruits were obtained with low redundancy. In contrast, many clones thought to relate with translation, cell structure and stress responses were found on the cDNA libraries from the initial development and stone hardening stages. These genes were redundantly observed on the libraries. Most clones at early and middle stages showed significant homology to the previous characterized genes. Furthermore, we compared the distribution of putatively identified genes specific to different developmental stages and discussed their frequencies of appearance in various libraries.