Biological Thinning of Fruit Set by RNAase in Deciduous Fruit Trees

Fruit thinning is a common and necessary practice for commercial fruit production in many deciduous tree fruit species. Fruit thinning in apple may be accomplished with a variety of chemical thinning agents, but the use of these chemicals is a subject of environmental concern. It has been shown recently that RNase enzyme, secreted from the stigma and the style, inhibits pollen germination and pollen tube elongation. In this study we have been able to show that Aspergillus niger B-1 RNase can effectively inhibit peach and apple pollen germination, and tube elongation in-vitro, as well as thin fruit in peach and apple, and reduce the number of seeds in citrus. The objectives of the research were to detrmine the conditions for effective thinning of (USA and Israel), develop fermentation process for cost effective production of RNase from A. niger. (Israel), and clone apple S-RNase cDNA (USA). All the objectives of the research were addressed. We have determined the optimal fermentation conditions for cost effective production of the A. niger at a 20,000 liters scale. TheA. niger B1 RNase was isolated to homogeneity and its kinetic and biochemical properties including its N-terminal sequence were fully characterized. The field test results both in Israel and California have shown variability in effectiveness and more work is needed to define the RNase concentration necessary to completely inhibit pollen development. Plant transformation vectors expressing anti-sense apple S-RNase genes were constructed (USA) with an attempt to produce self compatible transgenic apple trees. Bovine S-Protein cDNA was cloned and successfully expressed in E. coli (Israel). Plant transformation vector expressing the S-Protein gene was constructed (USA) with an attempt to produce transgenic plants expressing S-protein in the style. Exogenous application of S-peptide to these plants will result in active RNase and consequently prevention of fertilization.