The green and yellow pineapple fruit expressed sequence tag (EST) sequence project at The University of Queensland was initiated as a first step toward understanding the molecular basis of pineapple fruit ripening, and non-climacteric fruit ripening in general. Pineapple fruits are classified as non-climacteric, as there is no respiratory burst or spike in ethylene production during ripening and exogenous application of ethylene does not rapidly accelerate fruit ripening. Although much is known of the ripening mechanisms of climacteric fruits (mainly due to research using tomato as a model), almost nothing is known of how non-climacteric fruit ripening is controlled.
We also initiated an EST sequencing program to identify sequences expressed during the course of Meloidogyne javanica nematode induced gall formation, focusing primarily on those cells contained within the vascular bundle (including the "giant cells" nematodes feed off). Many crop species, including pineapple, are susceptible to root-knot nematode infection, causing crop losses estimated at billions of dollars each year. Understanding the molecular mechanisms governing the nematode-plant interaction is seen as a critically important step toward developing alternative strategies to control extensive crop losses attributable to nematode plant parasites. The pineapple root/gall EST sequencing project was funded by an ARC-linkage grant with Golden Circle Limited.
The pineapple bioinformatics resource is a curated database providing integrated access to EST data for cDNA clones isolated from pineapple fruit, root, and nematode infected root gall tissues. The database currently houses over 5500 EST sequences. Details of the process used in analysis of the sequences in the database are given in this pipeline
Access the database here or just carry out a quick search, using the clone name (e.g. JBW005D06) or contig number (e.g. Contig_23)