XVI International Botanical Congess

Agritope's ethylene control strategy involves the expression of S-adenosyl methionine hydrolase in a tissue-specific manner. Anonymous cDNA fragments were identified as being tissue-specific in banana via differential display by comparing transcript patterns in fruit, root, corm, leaf, and in vitro plants. Fruit-specific differential display fragments were subjected to sequence and hybridization analysis. Sequences identified include a putative reductase, glucanase, thioredoxin, and citrate synthase. Two of the fruit-specific cDNA fragments analyzed were selected for further characterization. Both fragments are expressed exclusively in the fruit and belong to small gene families. With gene-specific sequence information, primers were designed to isolate upstream regulatory regions associated with each of the fruit-specific genes.