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AOBPreview published online on May 21, 2003
Annals of Botany, doi:10.1093/aob/mcg108
© 2003 by Annals of Botany Company
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Submitted on February 10, 2003
Revised on March 10, 2003
Accepted on March 21, 2003

Girdling Affects Carbohydrate-related Gene Expression in Leaves, Bark and Roots of Alternate-bearing Citrus Trees

CHUN-YAO LI1, DAVID WEISS1, and ELIEZER E. GOLDSCHMIDT1*

Affiliation of the authors: 1 The Institute of Plant Sciences and Genetics in Agriculture, Faculty of Agricultural, Food, and Environmental Quality Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot 76100, Israel

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: goldsmit{at}argi.huji.ac.il.

Effects of girdling on carbohydrate status and carbohydrate-related gene expression in citrus trees were investigated. Alternate-bearing ‘Murcott' (a Citrus reticulata hybrid of unknown origin) trees were girdled during autumn (25 Sep. 2001) and examined 10 weeks later. Girdling brought about carbohydrate (soluble sugar and starch) accumulation in leaves and shoot bark above the girdle, in trees during their fruitless, ‘off' year. Trees during their heavy fruit load, ‘on' year did not accumulate carbohydrates above the girdle due to the high demand for carbohydrates by the developing fruit. Girdling caused a strong decline in soluble sugar and starch concentrations in organs below the girdle (roots), in both ‘on' and ‘off' trees. Expression of STPH-L and STPH-H (two isoforms of starch phosphorylase), Agps (ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase, small subunit), AATP (plastidic ADP/ATP transporter), PGM-C (phosphoglucomutase) and CitSuS1 (sucrose synthase), all of which are associated with starch accumulation, was studied. It was found that gene expression is related to starch accumulation in all ‘off' tree organs. RNA levels of all the genes examined were high in leaves and bark that accumulated high concentrations of starch, and low in roots with declining starch concentrations. It may be hypothesized that changes in specific sugars signal the up- and down-regulation of genes involved in starch synthesis.
Key words: Alternate bearing, carbohydrates, Citrus, girdling, soluble sugar, starch.


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