On the cover: Apple genetic resources show a broad diversity in their fruit characteristics such as size, texture, skin color and sugar/acid contents, all of which are important components for quality and commercial value of apples. Apple fruits with red-colored skin are generally of the first choice for consumers: thereby is an important target in apple breeding. In this issue, Ban et al. (958-970) isolated one of the MYB transcription factor genes, MdMYBA. MdMYBA induced pigmentation and its protein bound to the promoter region of anthocyanidin synthase. In addition, MdMYBA was mapped near the region of a STS marker for red skin color. All of these evidences showed that MdMYBA is a key regulatory gene responsible for anthocyanin biosynthesis in apple skin.
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