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Graci S, Cigliano RA, Barone A. Exploring the gene expression network involved in the heat stress response of a thermotolerant tomato genotype. BMC Genomics 2024; 25:509. [PMID: 38783170 PMCID: PMC11112777 DOI: 10.1186/s12864-024-10393-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/06/2024] [Accepted: 05/08/2024] [Indexed: 05/25/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND The increase in temperatures due to the current climate change dramatically affects crop cultivation, resulting in yield losses and altered fruit quality. Tomato is one of the most extensively grown and consumed horticultural products, and although it can withstand a wide range of climatic conditions, heat stress can affect plant growth and development specially on the reproductive stage, severely influencing the final yield. In the present work, the heat stress response mechanisms of one thermotolerant genotype (E42) were investigated by exploring its regulatory gene network. This was achieved through a promoter analysis based on the identification of the heat stress elements (HSEs) mapping in the promoters, combined with a gene co-expression network analysis aimed at identifying interactions among heat-related genes. RESULTS Results highlighted 82 genes presenting HSEs in the promoter and belonging to one of the 52 gene networks obtained by the GCN analysis; 61 of these also interact with heat shock factors (Hsfs). Finally, a list of 13 candidate genes including two Hsfs, nine heat shock proteins (Hsps) and two GDSL esterase/lipase (GELPs) were retrieved by focusing on those E42 genes exhibiting HSEs in the promoters, interacting with Hsfs and showing variants, compared to Heinz reference genome, with HIGH and/or MODERATE impact on the translated protein. Among these, the Gene Ontology annotation analysis evidenced that only LeHsp100 (Solyc02g088610) belongs to a network specifically involved in the response to heat stress. CONCLUSIONS As a whole, the combination of bioinformatic analyses carried out on genomic and trascriptomic data available for tomato, together with polymorphisms detected in HS-related genes of the thermotolerant E42 allowed to determine a subset of candidate genes involved in the HS response in tomato. This study provides a novel approach in the investigation of abiotic stress response mechanisms and further studies will be conducted to validate the role of the highlighted genes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Salvatore Graci
- Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Naples Federico II, Portici, Naples, Italy
| | | | - Amalia Barone
- Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Naples Federico II, Portici, Naples, Italy.
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Graci S, Barone A. Tomato plant response to heat stress: a focus on candidate genes for yield-related traits. FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE 2024; 14:1245661. [PMID: 38259925 PMCID: PMC10800405 DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1245661] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/23/2023] [Accepted: 12/15/2023] [Indexed: 01/24/2024]
Abstract
Climate change and global warming represent the main threats for many agricultural crops. Tomato is one of the most extensively grown and consumed horticultural products and can survive in a wide range of climatic conditions. However, high temperatures negatively affect both vegetative growth and reproductive processes, resulting in losses of yield and fruit quality traits. Researchers have employed different parameters to evaluate the heat stress tolerance, including evaluation of leaf- (stomatal conductance, net photosynthetic rate, Fv/Fm), flower- (inflorescence number, flower number, stigma exertion), pollen-related traits (pollen germination and viability, pollen tube growth) and fruit yield per plant. Moreover, several authors have gone even further, trying to understand the plants molecular response mechanisms to this stress. The present review focused on the tomato molecular response to heat stress during the reproductive stage, since the increase of temperatures above the optimum usually occurs late in the growing tomato season. Reproductive-related traits directly affects the final yield and are regulated by several genes such as transcriptional factors, heat shock proteins, genes related to flower, flowering, pollen and fruit set, and epigenetic mechanisms involving DNA methylation, histone modification, chromatin remodelling and non-coding RNAs. We provided a detailed list of these genes and their function under high temperature conditions in defining the final yield with the aim to summarize the recent findings and pose the attention on candidate genes that could prompt on the selection and constitution of new thermotolerant tomato plant genotypes able to face this abiotic challenge.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Amalia Barone
- Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Naples Federico II, Portici, Naples, Italy
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Comparative Analysis of Environment-Responsive Alternative Splicing in the Inflorescences of Cultivated and Wild Tomato Species. Int J Mol Sci 2022; 23:ijms231911585. [PMID: 36232886 PMCID: PMC9569760 DOI: 10.3390/ijms231911585] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/26/2022] [Revised: 09/22/2022] [Accepted: 09/26/2022] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Cultivated tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) is bred for fruit production in optimized environments, in contrast to harsh environments where their ancestral relatives thrive. The process of domestication and breeding has profound impacts on the phenotypic plasticity of plant development and the stress response. Notably, the alternative splicing (AS) of precursor message RNA (pre-mRNA), which is one of the major factors contributing to transcriptome complexity, is responsive to developmental cues and environmental change. To determine a possible association between AS events and phenotypic plasticity, we investigated environment-responsive AS events in the inflorescences of cultivated tomato and its ancestral relatives S. pimpinellifolium. Despite that similar AS frequencies were detected in the cultivated tomato variety Moneymaker and two S. pimpinellifolium accessions under the same growth conditions, 528 genes including splicing factors showed differential splicing in the inflorescences of plants grown in open fields and plastic greenhouses in the Moneymaker variety. In contrast, the two S. pimpinellifolium accessions, LA1589 and LA1781, had 298 and 268 genes showing differential splicing, respectively. Moreover, seven heat responsive genes showed opposite expression patterns in response to changing growth conditions between Moneymaker and its ancestral relatives. Accordingly, there were eight differentially expressed splice variants from genes involved in heat response in Moneymaker. Our results reveal distinctive features of AS events in the inflorescences between cultivated tomato and its ancestral relatives, and show that AS regulation in response to environmental changes is genotype dependent.
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Zheng H, Dong Y, Nong H, Huang L, Liu J, Yu X, Zhang Y, Yang L, Hong B, Wang W, Tao J. VvSUN may act in the auxin pathway to regulate fruit shape in grape. HORTICULTURE RESEARCH 2022; 9:uhac200. [PMID: 36382226 PMCID: PMC9647697 DOI: 10.1093/hr/uhac200] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/17/2022] [Accepted: 08/31/2022] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
Fruit shape is an essential agronomic feature in many crops. We identified and functionally characterized an auxin pathway-related gene, VvSUN. VvSUN, which belongs to the SUN/IQ67-DOMAIN (IQD) family, localizes to the plasma membrane and chloroplast and may be involved in controlling fruit shape through auxin. It is highly expressed in the ovary, and the expression level 1 week before the anthesis stage is positively correlated with the fruit shape index. Functional analyses illustrated that VvSUN gene overexpression in tomato and tobacco plants changed fruit/pod shape. The VvSUN promoter directly bound to VvARF6 in yeast and activated ß-glucuronidase (GUS) activity by indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) treatments in grapevine leaves, indicating that VvSUN functions are in coordination with auxin. Further analysis of 35S::VvSUN transgenic tomato ovaries showed that the fruit shape changes caused by VvSUN were predominantly caused by variations in cell number in longitudinal directions by regulating endogenous auxin levels via polar transport and/or auxin signal transduction process variations. Moreover, enrichment of the 35S::VvSUN transgenic tomato differentially expressed genes was found in a variety of biological processes, including primary metabolic process, transmembrane transport, calcium ion binding, cytoskeletal protein binding, tubulin binding, and microtubule-based movement. Using weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA), we confirmed that this plant hormone signal transduction may play a crucial role in controlling fruit shape. As a consequence, it is possible that VvSUN acts as a hub gene, altering cellular auxin levels and the plant hormone signal transduction pathway, which plays a role in cell division patterns, leading to anisotropic growth of the ovary and, ultimately, an elongated fruit shape.
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Affiliation(s)
- Huan Zheng
- College of Horticulture, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China
| | - Yang Dong
- College of Horticulture, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China
| | - Huilan Nong
- College of Horticulture, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China
| | - Liyuan Huang
- College of Horticulture, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China
| | - Jing Liu
- College of Horticulture, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China
| | - Xin Yu
- College of Horticulture, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China
| | - Yaguan Zhang
- College of Horticulture, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China
| | - Lina Yang
- Charles River Laboratories International, Inc., Michigan, 49071, USA
| | - Ben Hong
- College of Horticulture, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China
| | - Wu Wang
- Institute of Botany, Jiangsu Province and Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210014, China
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Yang Y, Zhao T, Xu X, Jiang J, Li J. Transcriptome Analysis to Explore the Cause of the Formation of Different Inflorescences in Tomato. Int J Mol Sci 2022; 23:ijms23158216. [PMID: 35897806 PMCID: PMC9368726 DOI: 10.3390/ijms23158216] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/11/2022] [Revised: 07/19/2022] [Accepted: 07/20/2022] [Indexed: 02/05/2023] Open
Abstract
The number of inflorescence branches is an important agronomic character of tomato. The meristem differentiation and development pattern of tomato inflorescence is complex and its regulation mechanism is very different from those of other model plants. Therefore, in order to explore the cause of tomato inflorescence branching, transcriptome analysis was conducted on two kinds of tomato inflorescences (single racemes and compound inflorescences). According to the transcriptome data analysis, there were many DEGs of tomato inflorescences at early, middle, and late stages. Then, GO and KEGG enrichments of DEGs were performed. DEGs are mainly enriched in metabolic pathways, biohormone signaling, and cell cycle pathways. According to previous studies, DEGs were mainly enriched in metabolic pathways, and FALSIFLORA (FA) and ANANTHA (AN) genes were the most notable of 41 DEGs related to inflorescence branching. This study not only provides a theoretical basis for understanding inflorescence branching, but also provides a new idea for the follow-up study of inflorescence.
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Wang X, Liu Z, Sun S, Wu J, Li R, Wang H, Cui X. SISTER OF TM3 activates FRUITFULL1 to regulate inflorescence branching in tomato. HORTICULTURE RESEARCH 2021; 8:251. [PMID: 34848688 PMCID: PMC8633288 DOI: 10.1038/s41438-021-00677-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/06/2021] [Revised: 07/19/2021] [Accepted: 08/02/2021] [Indexed: 05/19/2023]
Abstract
Selection for favorable inflorescence architecture to improve yield is one of the crucial targets in crop breeding. Different tomato varieties require distinct inflorescence-branching structures to enhance productivity. While a few important genes for tomato inflorescence-branching development have been identified, the regulatory mechanism underlying inflorescence branching is still unclear. Here, we confirmed that SISTER OF TM3 (STM3), a homolog of Arabidopsis SOC1, is a major positive regulatory factor of tomato inflorescence architecture by map-based cloning. High expression levels of STM3 underlie the highly inflorescence-branching phenotype in ST024. STM3 is expressed in both vegetative and reproductive meristematic tissues and in leaf primordia and leaves, indicative of its function in flowering time and inflorescence-branching development. Transcriptome analysis shows that several floral development-related genes are affected by STM3 mutation. Among them, FRUITFULL1 (FUL1) is downregulated in stm3cr mutants, and its promoter is bound by STM3 by ChIP-qPCR analysis. EMSA and dual-luciferase reporter assays further confirmed that STM3 could directly bind the promoter region to activate FUL1 expression. Mutation of FUL1 could partially restore inflorescence-branching phenotypes caused by high STM3 expression in ST024. Our findings provide insights into the molecular and genetic mechanisms underlying inflorescence development in tomato.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaotian Wang
- Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetic Improvement of Horticultural Crops of the Ministry of Agriculture, Institute of Vegetables and Flowers, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100081, China
- Sino-Dutch Joint Laboratory of Horticultural Genomics, Institute of Vegetables and Flowers, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100081, China
| | - Zhiqiang Liu
- Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetic Improvement of Horticultural Crops of the Ministry of Agriculture, Institute of Vegetables and Flowers, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100081, China
- Sino-Dutch Joint Laboratory of Horticultural Genomics, Institute of Vegetables and Flowers, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100081, China
| | - Shuai Sun
- Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetic Improvement of Horticultural Crops of the Ministry of Agriculture, Institute of Vegetables and Flowers, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100081, China
- Sino-Dutch Joint Laboratory of Horticultural Genomics, Institute of Vegetables and Flowers, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100081, China
| | - Jianxin Wu
- Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetic Improvement of Horticultural Crops of the Ministry of Agriculture, Institute of Vegetables and Flowers, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100081, China
- Sino-Dutch Joint Laboratory of Horticultural Genomics, Institute of Vegetables and Flowers, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100081, China
| | - Ren Li
- Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetic Improvement of Horticultural Crops of the Ministry of Agriculture, Institute of Vegetables and Flowers, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100081, China
- Sino-Dutch Joint Laboratory of Horticultural Genomics, Institute of Vegetables and Flowers, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100081, China
| | - Haijing Wang
- Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetic Improvement of Horticultural Crops of the Ministry of Agriculture, Institute of Vegetables and Flowers, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100081, China
- Sino-Dutch Joint Laboratory of Horticultural Genomics, Institute of Vegetables and Flowers, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100081, China
| | - Xia Cui
- Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetic Improvement of Horticultural Crops of the Ministry of Agriculture, Institute of Vegetables and Flowers, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100081, China.
- Sino-Dutch Joint Laboratory of Horticultural Genomics, Institute of Vegetables and Flowers, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100081, China.
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Yang Y, Yang H, Tan Y, Zhao T, Xu X, Li J, Jiang J. Comparative Genome Analysis of Genes Regulating Compound Inflorescences in Tomato. Int J Mol Sci 2021; 22:ijms222212548. [PMID: 34830429 PMCID: PMC8623504 DOI: 10.3390/ijms222212548] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/26/2021] [Revised: 11/15/2021] [Accepted: 11/18/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Inflorescences are the main factor affecting fruit yield. The quantity and quality of inflorescences are closely related to fruit quality and yield. The presence of compound inflorescences in cherry tomatoes is well established, and it has been discovered by chance that compound racemes also exist in tomatoes. To explore the formation of compound inflorescences in tomato, transcriptome sequencing was performed on Moneymaker (MM) and Compound Inflorescence (CI) plants. In-florescences were collected in three periods (early, middle and late) in three replicates, for a total of 18 samples. Data analysis showed that the DEGs were most enriched in metabolic pathways and plant hormone signal transduction pathways. The DEGs were also enriched in the cell cycle pathway, photosynthesis pathway, carbon metabolism pathway and circadian rhythm pathway. We found that the FALSIFLORA (FA), COMPOUND INFLORESCENCE (S) and ANANTHA (AN) genes were involved in compound inflorescence development, not only revealing novel genes but also providing a rich theoretical basis for compound inflorescence development.
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Zhu C, Liu L, Crowell O, Zhao H, Brutnell TP, Jackson D, Kellogg EA. The CLV3 Homolog in Setaria viridis Selectively Controls Inflorescence Meristem Size. FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE 2021; 12:636749. [PMID: 33659018 PMCID: PMC7917188 DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2021.636749] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/02/2020] [Accepted: 01/21/2021] [Indexed: 05/17/2023]
Abstract
The CLAVATA pathway controls meristem size during inflorescence development in both eudicots and grasses, and is initiated by peptide ligands encoded by CLV3/ESR-related (CLE) genes. While CLV3 controls all shoot meristems in Arabidopsis, evidence from cereal grasses indicates that different meristem types are regulated by different CLE peptides. The rice peptide FON2 primarily controls the size of the floral meristem, whereas the orthologous peptides CLE7 and CLE14 in maize have their most dramatic effects on inflorescence and branch meristems, hinting at diversification among CLE responses in the grasses. Setaria viridis is more closely related to maize than to rice, so can be used to test whether the maize CLE network can be generalized to all members of subfamily Panicoideae. We used CRISPR-Cas9 in S. viridis to knock out the SvFON2 gene, the closest homolog to CLV3 and FON2. Svfon2 mutants developed larger inflorescence meristems, as in maize, but had normal floral meristems, unlike Osfon2, suggesting a panicoid-specific CLE network. Vegetative traits such as plant height, tiller number and leaf number were not significantly different between mutant and wild type plants, but time to heading was shorter in the mutants. In situ hybridization showed strong expression of Svfon2 in the inflorescence and branch meristems, consistent with the mutant phenotype. Using bioinformatic analysis, we predicted the co-expression network of SvFON2 and its signaling components, which included genes known to control inflorescence architecture in maize as well as genes of unknown function. The similarity between SvFON2 function in Setaria and maize suggests that its developmental specialization in inflorescence meristem control may be shared among panicoid grasses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chuanmei Zhu
- Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, St. Louis, MO, United States
| | - Lei Liu
- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY, United States
| | - Olivia Crowell
- Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, St. Louis, MO, United States
| | - Hui Zhao
- Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, St. Louis, MO, United States
- Institute of Tropical Bioscience and Biotechnology and Hainan Key Laboratory for Biosafety Monitoring and Molecular Breeding in Off-Season Reproduction Regions, Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences, Haikou, China
| | - Thomas P. Brutnell
- Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, St. Louis, MO, United States
- Joint Laboratory for Photosynthesis Enhancement and C4 Rice Development, Biotechnology Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - David Jackson
- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY, United States
| | - Elizabeth A. Kellogg
- Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, St. Louis, MO, United States
- *Correspondence: Elizabeth A. Kellogg
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Manrique S, Friel J, Gramazio P, Hasing T, Ezquer I, Bombarely A. Genetic insights into the modification of the pre-fertilization mechanisms during plant domestication. JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BOTANY 2019; 70:3007-3019. [PMID: 31152173 DOI: 10.1093/jxb/erz231] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/25/2018] [Accepted: 05/02/2019] [Indexed: 05/26/2023]
Abstract
Plant domestication is the process of adapting plants to human use by selecting specific traits. The selection process often involves the modification of some components of the plant reproductive mechanisms. Allelic variants of genes associated with flowering time, vernalization, and the circadian clock are responsible for the adaptation of crops, such as rice, maize, barley, wheat, and tomato, to non-native latitudes. Modifications in the plant architecture and branching have been selected for higher yields and easier harvests. These phenotypes are often produced by alterations in the regulation of the transition of shoot apical meristems to inflorescences, and then to floral meristems. Floral homeotic mutants are responsible for popular double-flower phenotypes in Japanese cherries, roses, camellias, and lilies. The rise of peloric flowers in ornamentals such as snapdragon and florists' gloxinia is associated with non-functional alleles that control the relative expansion of lateral and ventral petals. Mechanisms to force outcrossing such as self-incompatibility have been removed in some tree crops cultivars such as almonds and peaches. In this review, we revisit some of these important concepts from the plant domestication perspective, focusing on four topics related to the pre-fertilization mechanisms: flowering time, inflorescence architecture, flower development, and pre-fertilization self-incompatibility mechanisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Silvia Manrique
- Department of Biosciences, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy
| | - James Friel
- Genetics and Biotechnology Laboratory, Plant and AgriBioscience Research Center (PABC), Ryan Institute, National University of Ireland Galway, Galway, Ireland
- School of Plant and Environmental Sciences (SPES), Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, USA
| | - Pietro Gramazio
- Instituto de Conservación y Mejora de la Agrodiversidad Valenciana (COMAV), Universitat Politècnica de València, Valencia, Spain
- Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan
| | - Tomas Hasing
- School of Plant and Environmental Sciences (SPES), Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, USA
| | - Ignacio Ezquer
- Department of Biosciences, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy
| | - Aureliano Bombarely
- Department of Biosciences, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy
- School of Plant and Environmental Sciences (SPES), Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, USA
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Rothan C, Diouf I, Causse M. Trait discovery and editing in tomato. THE PLANT JOURNAL : FOR CELL AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY 2019; 97:73-90. [PMID: 30417464 DOI: 10.1111/tpj.14152] [Citation(s) in RCA: 61] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/03/2018] [Revised: 10/08/2018] [Accepted: 10/30/2018] [Indexed: 06/09/2023]
Abstract
Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), which is used for both processing and fresh markets, is a major crop species that is the top ranked vegetable produced over the world. Tomato is also a model species for research in genetics, fruit development and disease resistance. Genetic resources available in public repositories comprise the 12 wild related species and thousands of landraces, modern cultivars and mutants. In addition, high quality genome sequences are available for cultivated tomato and for several wild relatives, hundreds of accessions have been sequenced, and databases gathering sequence data together with genetic and phenotypic data are accessible to the tomato community. Major breeding goals are productivity, resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses, and fruit sensorial and nutritional quality. New traits, including resistance to various biotic and abiotic stresses and root architecture, are increasingly being studied. Several major mutations and quantitative trait loci (QTLs) underlying traits of interest in tomato have been uncovered to date and, thanks to new populations and advances in sequencing technologies, the pace of trait discovery has considerably accelerated. In recent years, clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/Cas9 gene editing (GE) already proved its remarkable efficiency in tomato for engineering favorable alleles and for creating new genetic diversity by gene disruption, gene replacement, and precise base editing. Here, we provide insight into the major tomato traits and underlying causal genetic variations discovered so far and review the existing genetic resources and most recent strategies for trait discovery in tomato. Furthermore, we explore the opportunities offered by CRISPR/Cas9 and their exploitation for trait editing in tomato.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christophe Rothan
- INRA and University of Bordeaux, UMR 1332 Biologie du Fruit et Pathologie, F-33140, Villenave d'Ornon, France
| | - Isidore Diouf
- INRA, UR1052, Génétique et Amélioration des Fruits et Légumes, CS60094, F-84143, Montfavet, France
| | - Mathilde Causse
- INRA, UR1052, Génétique et Amélioration des Fruits et Légumes, CS60094, F-84143, Montfavet, France
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