<p>&nbsp / </p> <p align="left">The domesticated apple (<i><font face="TimesNewRomanPS-ItalicMT">Malus </font><font face="TimesNewRomanPSMT">x </font><i><font face="TimesNewRomanPS-ItalicMT">domestica </font><font face="TimesNewRomanPSMT">Borkh.), belonging to the </font><i><font face="TimesNewRomanPS-ItalicMT">Malus </font><font face="TimesNewRomanPSMT">genus of the Rosaceae family, is one of the edible pomaceous fruits. Since it is one of the important commercial fruit crops worldwide, the quality of the fruit is crucial to breeders and farmers as it ultimately determines acceptance of a cultivar for consumption. Fruit quality is also a critical determinant factor that is used to estimate the potential of apples to have a long shelf life. The introduction of marker-assisted selection (MAS) has allowed hastening of traditional breeding and selection of high-quality apple cultivars. The availability of genetic linkage maps, constructed by positioning molecular markers throughout the apple genome, enables the detection and analysis of major genes and quantitative trait loci (QTLs) contributing to the quality traits of a given genotype.&nbsp / herefore, the primary aim of this study was to construct a genetic linkage map of the &lsquo / Golden Delicious&rsquo / x &lsquo / Dietrich&rsquo / population for the identification of QTLs associated with fruit quality traits and then to examine the apple fruit pulp proteome with a specific focus on fruit firmness. In this regard, genomic DNA was extracted from leaves of the &lsquo / Golden Delicious&rsquo / x Dietrich&rsquo / population and used in megaplex PCR reactions. The PCR products were analysed prior to scoring of alleles. Polymorphic markers were then used to construct genetic linkage maps. The genetic linkage maps constructed in this study comprise of 167 simple sequence repeats (SSR) markers, 33 of these were newly developed markers. The 17 linkage groups of apple were constructed and aligned to existing apple genetic maps. The maps span 1,437.8 cM and 1,491.5 cM for &lsquo / Golden Delicious&rsquo / and &lsquo / Dietrich&rsquo / , respectively.</font></i></i></i></p>

<p>&nbsp / </p> <p align="left">The domesticated apple (<i><font face="TimesNewRomanPS-ItalicMT">Malus </font><font face="TimesNewRomanPSMT">x </font><i><font face="TimesNewRomanPS-ItalicMT">domestica </font><font face="TimesNewRomanPSMT">Borkh.), belonging to the </font><i><font face="TimesNewRomanPS-ItalicMT">Malus </font><font face="TimesNewRomanPSMT">genus of the Rosaceae family, is one of the edible pomaceous fruits. Since it is one of the important commercial fruit crops worldwide, the quality of the fruit is crucial to breeders and farmers as it ultimately determines acceptance of a cultivar for consumption. Fruit quality is also a critical determinant factor that is used to estimate the potential of apples to have a long shelf life. The introduction of marker-assisted selection (MAS) has allowed hastening of traditional breeding and selection of high-quality apple cultivars. The availability of genetic linkage maps, constructed by positioning molecular markers throughout the apple genome, enables the detection and analysis of major genes and quantitative trait loci (QTLs) contributing to the quality traits of a given genotype.&nbsp / herefore, the primary aim of this study was to construct a genetic linkage map of the &lsquo / Golden Delicious&rsquo / x &lsquo / Dietrich&rsquo / population for the identification of QTLs associated with fruit quality traits and then to examine the apple fruit pulp proteome with a specific focus on fruit firmness. In this regard, genomic DNA was extracted from leaves of the &lsquo / Golden Delicious&rsquo / x Dietrich&rsquo / population and used in megaplex PCR reactions. The PCR products were analysed prior to scoring of alleles. Polymorphic markers were then used to construct genetic linkage maps. The genetic linkage maps constructed in this study comprise of 167 simple sequence repeats (SSR) markers, 33 of these were newly developed markers. The 17 linkage groups of apple were constructed and aligned to existing apple genetic maps. The maps span 1,437.8 cM and 1,491.5 cM for &lsquo / Golden Delicious&rsquo / and &lsquo / Dietrich&rsquo / , respectively.</font></i></i></i></p>

In this study, the soluble protein fraction of P. chrysosporium grown under standard conditions was analyzed by using 2D-PAGE approach and a 2-D reference map was constructed. 910 spots could be separated and detected on Coomassie-stained 2-D gels by the help of Delta2D image analysis software. 720 spots could be cut from the master gel and were subjected to MALDI-TOF MS analysis followed by MASCOT search. A total of 517 spots out of 720 were assigned to specific accession numbers from the P. chrysosporium genome database. Further analysis of the data revealed 314 different gene products (distinct ORFs). The theoretical pI and MW values were plotted against the experimental migration distances. Results indicated the existence of 124 protein spots whose horizontal migration differed significantly from the expected migration according to the calculated pI values and 52 spots with an apparent molecular weight that is significantly different from their theoretical molecular weight. While protein modification could be predicted by these analyses, the main support was the presence of multiple spots of the same gene product. As much as 118 ORFs yielded multiple spots on the master gel, corresponding to 37.5% of the all distinct ORFs identified in this work. The relative abundance of each of the 517 identified polypeptides was calculated in terms of spot intensity. The majority of the most abundant proteins were found to be housekeeping ones. When the relative distribution of the proteins into four main functional categories was taken into consideration, &ldquo / Metabolism&rdquo / appeared the most important category with a share of 50.6% among identified proteins. However, among the functional classes, &ldquo / Posttranslational modifications, protein turnover, chaperones&rdquo / which is listed under the main category &ldquo / Cellular Processing and Signalling&rdquo / was represented by the highest number (104) of the identified proteins. Only 6 of the proteins listed in this study were assigned to hypothetical proteins. Out of the 314 identified gene products shown in P. chrysosporium, 29 were predicted to have a signal peptide sequence according to the SignalP algorithm. By making a WoLF PSORT search, subcellular localization of the proteins was predicted. Accordingly, 147 of the proteins were predicted to be located in cytoplasm. The phosphorylated proteins of P. chrysosporium were detected by ProQ phosphoprotein staining of the 2-D gel. 380 out of 910 distinct protein spots (40%) were found to be phosphorylated in exponentially growing cells of P. chrysosporium. Of these spots, 96 could be matched to the identified proteins.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / The domesticated apple (Malus x domestica Borkh), belonging to the Malusgenus of the Rosaceae family, is one of the edible pomaceous fruits. Since it is one of the important commercial fruit crops worldwide, the quality of the fruit is crucial to breeders and farmers as it ultimately determines acceptance of a cultivar for consumption. Fruit quality is also a critical determinant factor that is used to estimate the potential of apples to have a long shelf life / South Africa