Identification and quantification of vis gene in date palm fruits

Abstract

Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) is one of the economic crops in most of semi-arid areas. It is considered as a typical model to study fruit maturation. A lot of technologies were used to study date fruit development and ripening.

In this research individual and total sugars in addition to the total phenolic content were extracted and measured. Glucose, fructose and sucrose content had been calculated in two different Saudi date palm cultivars Holwah Al Joof, and Saghai. The total sugar content in the Saghai scored higher than Holwah Al Joof. However, in case of the phenolic content was higher in Holwah Al Joof than Saghai. Fruit softening occurs during ripening as a consequence of progressive cell wall modification and disassembly by enzyme action. Pectin and hemicellulose, two of the major cell wall components, undergo solubilization and depolymerization. Therefore, the expression of vis1 gene had been quantified as one of the fruit quality controlling genes. Compared to the tomato fruit as a positive control, the expression of vis1 in Holwah Al Joof fruit was lower than in Saghai.