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JXB Advance Access originally published online on August 22, 2006
Journal of Experimental Botany 2006 57(12):3243-3258; doi:10.1093/jxb/erl084
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© The Author [2006]. Published by Oxford University Press [on behalf of the Society for Experimental Biology]. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

RESEARCH PAPER

Biochemical and genomic analysis of sucrose metabolism during coffee (Coffea arabica) fruit development

Clara Geromel1 *, Lúcia Pires Ferreira2 *, Sandra Maria Carmelo Guerreiro4, Aline Andréia Cavalari1, David Pot2,5, Luiz Filipe Protásio Pereira2,3, Thierry Leroy5, Luiz Gonzaga Esteves Vieira2, Paulo Mazzafera1 and Pierre Marraccini2,5,{dagger}

1UNICAMP (Universidade Estadual de Campinas), Departamento de Fisiologia Vegetal, IB, CP 6109, 13083-970 Campinas, SP, Brazil
2IAPAR (Instituto Agronômico do Paraná), LBI-AMG, CP 481, 86001-970 Londrina PR, Brazil
3EMBRAPA Café, Laboratório de Biotecnologia, CP 481, 86047-902 Londrina, PR, Brazil
4UNICAMP (Universidade Estadual de Campinas), Departamento de Botânica, IB, CP 6109, 13083-970 Campinas, SP, Brazil
5Cirad, UMR PIA, Avenue d'Agropolis, F-34398 Montpellier Cedex 5, France

{dagger}To whom correspondence should be addressed at Cirad/EMBRAPA, Centro Nacional de Pesquisa de Recursos Genéticos e Biotecnologia, PBI, CP 02372, 70770–900 Brasilia, DF, Brazil. E-mail: marraccini{at}cirad.fr

Sucrose metabolism and the role of sucrose synthase were investigated in the fruit tissues (pericarp, perisperm, and endosperm) of Coffea arabica during development. Acid invertase, sucrose phosphate synthase, and sucrose synthase activities were monitored and compared with the levels of sucrose and reducing sugars. Among these enzymes, sucrose synthase showed the highest activities during the last stage of endosperm and pericarp development and this activity paralleled closely the accumulation of sucrose in these tissues at this stage. Carbon partitioning in fruits was studied by pulse–chase experiments with 14C-sugars and revealed high rates of sucrose turnover in perisperm and endosperm tissues. Additional feeding experiments with 14CO2 showed that leaf photosynthesis contributed more to seed development than the pericarp in terms of photosynthate supply to the endosperm. Sugar analysis, feeding experiments, and histological studies indicated that the perisperm plays an important role in this downloading process. It was observed that the perisperm presents a transient accumulation of starch which is degraded as the seed develops. Two full-length cDNAs (CaSUS1 and CaSUS2) and the complete gene sequence of the latter were also isolated. They encode sucrose synthase isoforms that are phylogenetically distinct, indicating their involvement in different physiological functions during cherry development. Contrasting expression patterns were observed for CaSUS1 and CaSUS2 in perisperm, endosperm, and pericarp tissues: CaSUS1 mRNAs accumulated mainly during the early development of perisperm and endosperm, as well as during pericarp growing phases, whereas those of CaSUS2 paralleled sucrose synthase activity in the last weeks of pericarp and endosperm development. Taken together, these results indicate that sucrose synthase plays an important role in sugar metabolism during sucrose accumulation in the coffee fruit.

Key words: Coffea arabica, endosperm, gene expression, sucrose synthase, sugar partitioning


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