Abstract

Cytokinin activates an ancient hormonal pathway that existed prior to the development of well-defined vasculature, but has diversified during land plant evolution. This phytohormone plays a very important role in plant growth and development; including cell division, meristem maintenance, shoot initiation and growth, vascular development, nutrient uptake, chloroplast differentiation, light perception, leaf senescence and fruit ripening. Recently, we have reported the conservation of the cytokinin signaling and homeostasis pathways between the Arabidopsis thaliana and Prunus persica. In order to identify cytokinin-responsive genes during peach fruit development, we performed transcriptomic and qPCR analyses of peach fruits treated exogenously with trans-zeatin at different stages of fruits development. Comparative analyses of these peach fruit cytokinin-responsive genes with published Arabidopsis meta-analyses reveals a novel set of over 200 cytokinin-responsive genes conserved between these two species.