Mutation of a bHLH transcription factor allowed almond domestication

• DOI: 10.1126/science.aav8197
• Publication Date: 2019-06-13T23:14:12Z
• Authors: R. Sánchez-Pérez; S. Pavan; R. Mazzeo; C. Moldovan; R. Aiese Cigliano; J. Del Cueto; F. Ricciardi; C. Lotti; L. Ricciardi; F. Dicenta; R. L. López-Marqués; B. Lindberg Møller
• Keywords: 0303 health sciences; Transcription, Genetic; Protein Conformation; Phenylalanine; Amygdalin; Almond; Prunus dulcis; *; Domestication; domestication; 03 medical and health sciences; Amino Acid Substitution; Cytochrome P-450 Enzyme System; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; Leucine; Multigene Family; Taste; Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Transcription Factors; Point Mutation; mutation; Protein Multimerization; genome; transcription factor; Plant Proteins

How to make almonds palatable

The domesticated almond tree has been feeding humans for millennia. Derivation from the wild, bitter, and toxic almond required loss of the cyanogenic diglucoside amygdalin. Sánchez-Pérez et al. sequenced the almond genome and analyzed the genomic region responsible for this shift. The key change turned out to be a point mutation in a transcription factor that regulates production of P450 monooxygenases in the biosynthetic pathway for the toxic compound.

Science , this issue p. 1095