Coordinate Expression of Senescence-associated Genes in Both Cotyledon and Petal Development of Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.)

摘要

We investigated expression of cucumber senescence-associated genes (SAGs) from developing cotyledons and flower petals. Several cucumber SAGs have been reported in earlier reports. This is an extension of the previous findings. Semi-quantitative RT-PCR revealed that most of the cucumber SAG transcripts were consistently produced until the organ senescence. These results imply that many cucumber senescence-related genes are still active during the final development stage, playing some executive biological roles, possibly in remobilization of nutrients to the other parts of tissues or organs. These results were used to search for possible functions of senescence-related genes during organ development.