CmLHP1 proteins play a key role in plant development and maintenance of monoecy in Cucumis melo (RNA-Seq)

Purpose: We conducted a reverse genetic approach in order to elucidate the role of H3K27me3 writers and erasers in the process of sex determination and expression in melon. Methods: We used TILLING to find loss-of function mutants of cmLHP1 proteins in melon. Selected alleles were phenotyped at the developmental and molecular levels. We generated the cmlhp1ab mutant, for which we observed a pleiotropic phenotype. For this double mutant, we integrated RNA-seq (leaves), ChIP-seq (leaves) and RT-PCR (flowers) for elucidating the impact of cmLHP1 loss of function at the molecular level. Results: cmlhp1ab displayed a pleiotropic phenotype which correlated with genome-wide changes of H3K27me3 (moore oftenly hypomethylation) and deregulation of genes involved in flower development and hormone responses. 3 biological replicates of RNA-seq from leaves of WT and Cmlhp1ab double mutants.