Fruit ripening is a unique aspect of plant development with direct implications for a large component of the food supply and related areas of human health and nutrition. Recent advances in ripening research have given insights into the molecular basis of conserved developmental signals coordinating the ripening process and suggest that sequences related to floral development genes might be logi...

To investigate the regulatory mechanism(s) of ethylene biosynthesis in fruit, transgenic tomatoes with all known LeEIL genes suppressed were produced by RNA interference engineering. The transgenic tomato exhibited ethylene insensitivity phenotypes such as non-ripening and the lack of the triple response and petiole epinasty of seedlings even in the presence of exogenous ethylene. Transgenic fr...

The hormone ethylene regulates a wide range of plant developmental processes and EBF (EIN3-binding F-box) proteins were shown to negatively regulate the ethylene signalling pathway via mediating the degradation of EIN3/EIL proteins. The present study reports on the identification of two tomato F-box genes, Sl-EBF1 and Sl-EBF2 from the EBF subfamily. The two genes display contrasting expression ...

In plants, fruit maturation and oxidative stress can induce small heat shock protein (sHSP) synthesis to maintain cellular homeostasis. Although the tomato reference genome was published in 2012, the actual number and functionality of sHSP genes remain unknown. Using a transcriptomic (RNA-seq) and evolutionary genomic approach, putative sHSP genes in the Solanum lycopersicum (cv. Heinz 1706) ge...

The hormone ethylene regulates a wide range of plant developmental processes and EBF (EIN3-binding F-box) proteins were shown to negatively regulate the ethylene signalling pathway via mediating the degradation of EIN3/ EIL proteins. The present study reports on the identification of two tomato F-box genes, Sl-EBF1 and Sl-EBF2 from the EBF subfamily. The two genes display contrasting expression...

Fruit development and ripening entail key biological and agronomic events, which ensure the appropriate formation and dispersal of seeds and determine productivity and yield quality traits. The MADS box gene Arlequin/tomato Agamous-like1 (hereafter referred to as TAGL1) was reported as a key regulator of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) reproductive development, mainly involved in flower developme...

Abscisic acid (ABA) regulates plant development and adaptation to environmental conditions. Although the ABA biosynthesis pathway in plants has been thoroughly elucidated, how ABA biosynthetic genes are regulated at the molecular level during plant development is less well understood. Here, we show that the tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) zinc finger transcription factor SlZFP2 is involved in the...

The ripening of many fruits is controlled by an increase in ethylene hormone concentration. E8 is a fruit ripening protein that is related to the enzyme that catalyzes the last step in the ethylene biosynthesis pathway, 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic (ACC) oxidase. To determine the function of E8, we have transformed tomato plants with an E8 antisense gene. We show here that the antisense gen...

Fruit development and ripening are unique to plants and represent an important component of human and animal diets. Recent discoveries have shed light on the molecular basis of developmental ripening control, suggested common regulators of climacteric and nonclimacteric ripening physiology, and defined a new role for MADS box genes in this late stage of floral development. Analyses of fruit-rip...

Endo-beta-mannanase cDNAs were cloned and characterized from ripening tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill. cv Trust) fruit, which produces an active enzyme, and from the tomato cv Walter, which produces an inactive enzyme. There is a two-nucleotide deletion in the gene from tomato cv Walter, which results in a frame shift and the deletion of four amino acids at the C terminus of the full-lengt...