| Abstract Detail
Conference Wide de Maagd, Ruud A [1], Angenent, Gerco [1], Rosin, Faye [2]. Early fruit development in tomato studied by RNAi inhibition of gene expression. TOMATO fruit development can be divided in a number of stages, and the outcome of each stage has an impact on the quality and quantity (individual fruit size and number of fruits) of the final product, the ripe fruit. In tomato, pollination, usually followed by fertilization, is the trigger for fruit set and the beginning of the next stage, cell division. The ovarium then further expands to its final, yet unripe, form and size mainly through rapid growth by cell expansion. While cell division seizes DNA replication continues, giving rise to polyploid cells (a process called endoreduplication). The polyploid nature of the cells allows to them to expand far beyond the size of the original cells. Cell number and cell size ultimately determine the size of the tomato fruit. The final stage of fruit development, ripening, occurs after completion of seed maturation and is characterized by the well-known changes in color, texture, flavor, aroma, softening and changes in ethylene biosynthesis and perception. We have recently started a research program which focuses on the early stages of tomato fruit development and we are particularly interested in the regulation of the relative lengths of the cell division and expansion stages at the molecular level, and in how this effects the size, form and quality of the ripe fruit. For this purpose we have identified a number of candidate genes from (among other) publicly available results of gene expression studies. From these genes we have produced RNAi constructs in order to specifically down-regulate expression of these genes in transgenic developing tomato fruits. The preliminary results obtained by the analysis of the transgenic lines will be presented.
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1 - Plant Research International, Bioscience, P.O. Box 16, Wageningen, NL-6700 AA, Netherlands
2 - Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, 216 Foran Hall, New Brunswick, NJ, NJ 08901, United States
Keywords:
tomato fruit
development
RNA interference
transcription factor.
Session: Poster-94
Location: Ballroom CD/Monona Terrace
Date: Tuesday, July 25th, 2006
Time: 8:00 AM
Abstract ID:131 |
