Zohar Ben-Simhon and Hamutal Borochov-Neori

Different pomegranate varieties display high variability of fruit color ranging from green to dark purple. Skin and aril color in pomegranate is determined by anthocyanin molecules. Apart from being important for the commercial value of the fruit, anthocyanins help to protect the fruit from radiation damage and are important for human diet as free radical scavengers and inhibitors of lipid peroxidation. Our study is aimed towards understanding the genetic factors that are responsible for the high variation observed in skin color, type of anthocyanin molecules and rate of pigment accumulation during pomegranate fruit development. The sequence of over 200 genes potentially involved in the anthocyanin biosynthetic pathway was determined and expression data for some of the genes was associated with anthocyanin content in several pomegranate cultivars that prominently differ in their skin color. The molecular genetic data combined with phenotypic analysis of segregating populations is expected to reveal the genetic factors that determine color variation in pomegranates.