The Paran Lab

 

 

Research highlights

The focus of my laboratory is the development of molecular tools for the improvement of vegetable crops, in particular pepper (Capsicum spp.).

Our first objective is the development of breeding lines containing disease resistance genes and a concomitant identification of molecular markers linked to these genes for use in marker assisted selection. This work has been focused on resistances to viruses such as TMV, TSWV (Jahn et al. 2000) and CMV (Ben Chaim et al. 2001a) and to fungal diseases such as powdery mildew caused by Leveillula taurica.

Our second objective is the identification of the major genes controlling fruit yield and quality parameters in pepper. We associated the genes capsanthin capsorubin synthase and phytoene synthase with mature fruit color changes (Popovsky and Paran, 2000; Thorup et al. 2000). We identified a major domestication gene, fruit polygalacturonase that is associated with the soft flesh and deciduous fruit characters present in wild Capsicum species (Rao et al. 2003a). We mapped the C locus that is required for the production of pungent fruit (Blum et al. 2002) and identified a major quantitative trait locus (QTL) affecting the level of pungency (Blum et al. 2003).

We identified QTLs for major fruit quantitative traits such as fruit weight, fruit shape, pericarp thickness and maturity (Ben Chaim et al. 2001b, Ben Chaim et al. 2003a, Ben Chaim et al. 2003b, Rao et al. 2003b). The pepper QTL data allow us to determine the degree of conservation of QTLs in Capsicum and among this genus and other members of the Solanaceae family.

 

Sample results

Recent publications

Ben Chaim, A. and Paran, I. 2000. Genetic analysis of quantitative traits in pepper (Capsicum annuum).  J. Amer. Soc. Hort. Sci. 125: 66-70.

Popovsky, S. and Paran, I. 2000. Molecular analysis of the Y locus in pepper: its relation to capsanthin-capsorubin synthase and to fruit color. Theor. Appl. Genet. 101: 86-89.

Jahn, M., Paran, I., Hoffmann, K., Radwansky E., Livingstone, K., Grube, R., Aftergoot, E., Lapidot, M. and Moyer, J. 2000. Genetic mapping of the Tsw locus for resistance to the Tospovirus tomato spotted wilt virus in Capsicum spp. and its relationship to the Sw-5 gene for resistance to the same pathogen in tomato. Mol. Plant- Microbe Interaction. 13: 673-682.

Thorup, T., Tanyolac, B., Livingstone, K., Popovsky, S., Paran, I. and Jahn, M. 2000. Candidate gene analysis of organ pigmentation loci in the Solanaceae. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 97: 11192-11197.

Ben Chaim, A., Grube, R., Lapidot, M., Jahn, M. and Paran, I. 2001a. Identification of quantitative trait loci associated with resistance to cucumber mosaic virus in Capsicum annuum. Theor. Appl. Genet. 102: 1213-1220.

Ben Chaim, A., Paran, I., Grube, R., Jahn, M., van Wijk, R. and J. Peleman. 2001b. QTL mapping of fruit related traits in pepper (Capsicum annuum). Theor. Appl. Genet. 102: 1016-1028.

Blum, E., Liu, K., Mazourek, M., Jahn, M. and Paran, I. 2002. Molecular mapping of the C locus for presence of pungency in Capsicum fruit. Genome. 45: 702-705.

Ben Chaim, A., Borovsky, E., Rao, G. U., Tanyolac, B. and Paran, I. 2003a. fs3.1: a major fruit shape QTL conserved in Capsicum. Genome. 46: 1-9.

Ben Chaim, A., Borovsky, E., De Jong, W. and Paran, I. 2003b. Linkage of the A locus for the presence of anthocyanin and fs10.1, a major fruit-shape QTL in pepper. Theor. Appl. Genet. 106: 889-894.

Rao, G. U. and Paran, I. 2003a. Polygalacturonase: a candidate gene for the soft flesh and deciduous fruit mutation in Capsicum. Plant Molecular Biology. 51: 135-141.

Rao, G. U. Ben Chaim, A., Borovsky, E. and Paran, I. 2003b. Mapping of yield related QTLs in pepper in an inter-specific cross of Capsicum annuum and C. frutescens Theor. Appl. Genet. 106: 1457-1466.

Blum, E., Mazourek, M., O'Connell, M., Curry, J., Thorup, T., Liu, K., Jahn, M. and Paran, I. 2003. Molecular mapping of capsaicinoid biosynthesis genes and QTL analysis for capsaicinoid content in Capsicum. Theor. Appl. Genet. In Press

Paran, I. 2003.  Marker-assisted utilization of exotic germplasm.  In: Physiology and Biotechnology Integration for Plant Breeding. H. T. Nguyen and A. Blum (Eds). Marcel Dekker, Inc., New York, New York

Paran, I. And Zamir. D. 2003. Quantitative traits in plants: beyond the QTL. Trends In Genetics. 19: 303-306.

 

 

 

 

Main contact

Dr. Ilan Paran
Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding
Agricultural Research Organization
The Volcani Center
Bet Dagan
P. O. Box 6
50250
Israel

 

Tel: 972-3-9683943
Fax: 972-3-9669642
Email: iparan@volcani.agri.gov.il