An exon skipping in a SEPALLATA-Like gene is associated with perturbed floral and fruits development in cucumber

Abstract

We isolated a mutant showing perturbations in the development of male and female floral organs and fruits. Analysis of the single nucleotide polymorphisms from bulked F2 pools identified the causative variant occurring in Csa4G126690. Csa4G126690 shows high homology to Arabidopsis SEPALLATA2 (SEP2) thus being designated CsSEP2. The causative variant was located on the splicing site of CsSEP2, resulting in the skipping of exon 6 and abolishment of the transcriptional activity. Our data suggest that CsSEP2 is involved in the floral organ and fruits development by conferring transcriptional activity.

Keywords: Cucumis sativus L; EMS mutant; exon skipping; floral and fruits development; whole genome re-sequencing.