*4.1. Identification of Apple SAP Genes*

We downloaded the database of the *Arabidopsis* SAP family from the TAIR website (http:// www.arabidopsis.org/) [24]. As query sequences for BlastP (http://www.rosaceae.org/tools/ncbi\_ blast) against predicted apple proteins, we used 14 *Arabidopsis* SAP proteins and the consensus protein sequences of the A20/AN1 domain hidden Markov model (HMM) profile (A20-like zinc finger, PF01754; AN1 zinc finger, PF01428) from the Pfam database (http://pfam.xfam.org/family/ PF01754; http://pfam.xfam.org/family/PF01428). We then searched all of those SAP sequences against the apple genome database (https://www.rosaceae.org/gb/gbrowse/malus\_x\_domestica/) with HMMER v3.0 and BlastP [31,32]. Confirming the reliability of those protein sequences ensured that the A20 and/or AN1 domains were present in each candidate MdSAP protein. For this, we used the Pfam database (http://pfam.sanger.ac.uk/search) and NCBI Conserved Domain Database (NCBI-CDD; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Structure/cdd/wrpsb.cgi) [34].
