Purpose of review: This review aims at presenting the actual and potential contribution of genomics to the understanding of the fruit ripening process and to the genetic improvement of fruit quality and storability. Findings: The advent of high throughput technologies for the sequencing of mRNAs and genomic DNA has sped up the study of gene expression and the decoding of the genome of fruit spe...

BACKGROUND Two important quality attributes of processing tomatoes are pH and titratable acidity. These and other quality attributes can be affected by tomato fruit maturity and over-maturity. We have determined the magnitude of these maturity effects in four processing tomato cultivars commonly grown in California. RESULTS Allowing tomatoes to remain on the vine for up to 4 weeks after ripen...

The chloroplast is the site of photosynthesis in higher plants but also functions as the center of synthesis for primary and specialized metabolites including amino acids, fatty acids, starch, and diverse isoprenoids. Mutants that disrupt aspects of chloroplast function represent valuable tools for defining structural and biochemical regulation of the chloroplast and its interplay with whole-pl...

Carotenoid pigments in plants fulfill indispensable functions in photosynthesis. Carotenoids that accumulate as secondary metabolites in chromoplasts provide distinct coloration to flowers and fruits. In this work we investigated the genetic mechanisms that regulate accumulation of carotenoids as secondary metabolites during ripening of tomato fruits. We analyzed two mutations that affect fruit...

Degenerate oligonucleotide primers corresponding to conserved regions flanking the active-site domain of 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate (ACC) synthase (EC 4.4.1.14) were used for the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to amplify DNA fragments from mRNA isolated from tomato fruit and tomato suspension cell culture. Antibodies raised against two conserved peptide sequences (TNPSNPLGTT and SLSKDLG...

The aim of this work was to investigate the effect of decreased cytosolic phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PEPCK) and plastidic NADP-dependent malic enzyme (ME) on tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) ripening. Transgenic tomato plants with strongly reduced levels of PEPCK and plastidic NADP-ME were generated by RNA interference gene silencing under the control of a ripening-specific E8 promoter. Wh...

The Tomato Expression Database (TED) includes three integrated components. The Tomato Microarray Data Warehouse serves as a central repository for raw gene expression data derived from the public tomato cDNA microarray. In addition to expression data, TED stores experimental design and array information in compliance with the MIAME guidelines and provides web interfaces for researchers to retri...

Fruit ripening is characterized by processes that modify texture and flavor but also by a dramatic increase in susceptibility to necrotrophic pathogens, such as Botrytis cinerea. Disassembly of the major structural polysaccharides of the cell wall (CW) is a significant process associated with ripening and contributes to fruit softening. In tomato, polygalacturonase (PG) and expansin (Exp) are a...

We have purified pectin methylesterase (PME; EC 3.1.11) from mature green (MG) tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill. cv Rutgers) pericarp to an apparent homogeneity, raised antibodies to the purified protein, and isolated a PME cDNA clone from a lambdagtll expression library constructed from MG pericarp poly(A)(+) RNA. Based on DNA sequencing, the PME cDNA clone isolated in the present study is...

Fruit ripening is a highly coordinated developmental process that coincides with seed maturation. The ripening process is regulated by thousands of genes that control progressive softening and/or lignification of pericarp layers, accumulation of sugars, acids, pigments, and release of volatiles. Key to crop improvement is a deeper understanding of the processes underlying fruit ripening. In tom...