Location: Plant, Soil and Nutrition Research
Project Number: 8062-21000-050-004-I
Project Type: Interagency Reimbursable Agreement
Start Date: Apr 1, 2019
End Date: Mar 31, 2024
Objective:
Carotenoids are vital to human nutrition and health. Identification of the genetic elements responsible for carotenoid accumulation and a thorough understanding of their control mechanisms are critical for development of carotenoid-enriched food crops. However, despite of the significant progress in carotenoid research, the regulatory genes and the overall control mechanisms remain largely unknown, which limit our ability to improve carotenoid content in agriculture products. The objectives of the proposed research are: 1) to clone the melon CmOr gene repressor via QTL-Seq and fine QTL mapping; 2) to functionally characterize it and elucidate its regulatory mechanism in controlling carotenoid accumulation in melon fruit; and 3) to identify additional new genes in mediating carotenoid metabolism in plants.
Approach:
To accomplish the specific objectives, a combination of genetic, molecular and biochemical approaches will be employed to identify the CmOr repressor gene(s) and elucidate its control mechanism in regulating carotenoid accumulation in melon fruit.
