Abstract:

A comprehensive analysis was carried out to identify sugar transporter（ST）genes and dissect their phylogenetic relationships,and to investigate their expression patterns during fruit development in‘Furongli’（Prunus salicina Lindl.）based on its genome data. A total of 49 ST genes were identified in the‘Furongli’genome and they were divided into seven subfamilies according to conserved domains and phylogenetic analysis. Bioinformatics analysis results showed that the length of PsSTs ranged from 313 to 948 aa,and all of them were predicted to locate in membrane. All the PsSTs contained the conserved sugar transporter domain（PF00083）,and the majority of them contained 12 transmembrane helices（TMHs）. Expression profiles of the 49 PsST genes during fruit development derived from RNA-Seq data indicated that 15 PsST genes were differentially expressed at different developmental stages. qRT-PCR analysis showed that nine of the 15 differentially expressed genes were significantly correlated with glucose and sucrose content in‘Furongli’fruit. Among them,one inositol transporter gene（PsINT4）,one sugar transporter protein gene（PsSTP11）,one sugar facilitator protein gene（PsSFP5）and one tonoplast monosaccharide transporter gene（PsTMT1）were identified as candidate genes,which may play important roles in sugar accumulation during the development and ripening of‘Furongli’fruit.

Key words: Prunus salicina, genome, sugar transporter, gene family, identification, bioinformatics analysis, expression analysis