Gene regulatory mechanism underlying astringency loss in persimmon fruit

Oriental persimmon (Diospyros kaki Thunb.) accumulates high levels of proanthocyanidins (PAs) in its fruit, resulting in a strong astringent taste in the middle of fruit development. Across persimmon cultivars, pollination constant and non-astringent (PCNA)-type cultivars stop accumulating PAs in the early stages of fruit development. Although it has been shown that the PCNA trait is conferred by a recessive allele at a single locus referred to as ASTRINGENCY (AST), the exact determinant remains to be identified. In this project, we attempted to elucidate the regulatory mechanism underlying the PCNA trait by transcriptome analyses of developing fruits of an F1 population segregating for the PCNA trait.