Ripening-associated regulation of gene transcription in the tomato.
Bouzayen M.
5th International Postharvest Symposium . Volume of Abstract . Verona, Italy 6-11 June 2004, p.77
2004
บทคัดย่อ
Ripening-associated regulation of gene transcription in the tomato.
Like other plant developmental processes fruit ontogeny and ripening are under multi-hormonal control.While the role of ethylene in triggering and regulating the ripening of climacteric fruit have been clearly demonstrated, little is known on the role of other hormones.Phytohormones exert their effect on plant development via a chain of transduction pathway that ultimately activates specific transcription factors, which in turn regulate the expression of a set of target genes.In order to uncover the role of hormones that act in concert with ethylene to regulate tomato fruit development, we screened for transcription factors showing differential expression from fruit set through ripening.Differential clones encoding either ethylene response factors (ERF) or auxin response factors (ERF) or auxin response factors (ARF and Aux/IAA) were isolated and characterized.Among the isolated Aux/IAA homologs, some showed fruit-specific ethylene regulation that correlated with their pattern of ethylene responsiveness clearly suggesting a cross-talk between ethylene and auxin throughout fruit development.Molecular and physiological characterization of transgenic tomato plants under- and over-expressing these transcription factors confirmed their role during the fruit development and ripening process.The promoter regions of a selected number of these genes were isolated and fused to reported genes to analyse their activity in planta.The developmental regulation of these genes along with their responsiveness to auxin and ethylene suggest that both hormones play an interactiverole during tomato fruit development and ripening.