Fruit characteristics, soluble sugar compositions and transcriptome analysis during the development of Citrus maxima “seedless”, and identification of SUS and INV genes involved in sucrose degradation

Citrus maxima “seedless” is originally from Malaysia, and now is widely cultivated in Hainan province, China. The essential features of this cultivar are thin skin, green epicarp and seedless at the ripening stage. Here, using C. maxima “seedless” as experimental material, we investigated the physical and inclusion indicators, and found the accumulation of storage compounds during 120–210 DAF leading to inconsistent increase between volume and weight. Component analysis of soluble sugar indicated that arabinose and xylose have a high content in early development of pummelo juice sacs (PJS), whereas fructose, glucose and sucrose show a significant increase during PJS maturation. To clarify a global overview of the gene expressing profiles, the PJSs from four periods (60, 120, 180 and 240 DAF) were selected for comparative transcriptome analysis. The resulting 8275 unigenes showed differential expression during PJS development. Also, the stability of 11 housekeeping genes were evaluated by geNorm method, resulting in a set of five genes (UBC, ACT, OR23, DWA2 and CYP21D) used as control for normalization of gene expression. Based on transcriptome data, 5 sucrose synthases (SUSs) and 10 invertases (INVs) were identified to be involved in sucrose degradation. Importantly, SUS4 may be responsible for arabinose and xylose biosynthesis to form the cell wall in early development, while SUS3 and VIN2 may be important in the accumulation of soluble hexose leading to cell expansion through an osmotic-independent pathway in late development. The information provides valuable metabolite and genetic resources in C. maxima “seedless”, and is important for achieving high fruit yield and quality.