SummaryEnhancement of sugar content and sweetness is desirable in some vegetables and in almost all fruits; however, biotechnological methods to increase sugar content are limited. Here, a completely novel methodological approach is presented that produces sweeter tomato fruits but does not have any negative effects on plant growth. Sucrose-induced repression of translation (SIRT), which is mediated by upstream open reading frames (uORFs), was initially reported in Arabidopsis AtbZIP11, a class S basic region leucine zipper (bZIP) transcription factor gene. Here, two AtbZIP11 orthologous genes, SlbZIP1 and SlbZIP2, were identified in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum). SlbZIP1 and SlbZIP2 contained four and three uORFs, respectively, in the cDNA 5 0 -leader regions. The second uORFs from the 5 0 cDNA end were conserved and involved in SIRT. Tomato plants were transformed with binary vectors in which only the main open reading frames (ORFs) of SlbZIP1 and SlbZIP2, without the SIRTresponsive uORFs, were placed under the control of the fruit-specific E8 promoter. Growth and morphology of the resulting transgenic tomato plants were comparable to those of wildtype plants. Transgenic fruits were approximately 1.5-fold higher in sugar content (sucrose/ glucose/fructose) than nontransgenic tomato fruits. In addition, the levels of several amino acids, such as asparagine and glutamine, were higher in transgenic fruits than in wild-type fruits. This was expected because SlbZIP transactivates the asparagine synthase and proline dehydrogenase genes. This 'sweetening' technology is broadly applicable to other plants that utilize sucrose as a major translocation sugar.

We performed comparative metabolome and transcriptome analyses throughout fruit development using the tomato cultivar M82 and its near-isogenic line IL8-3, with interesting and useful traits such as a high content of soluble solids. Marked differences between M82 and IL8-3 were found not only in ripe fruits but also at 20 days after flowering (DAF) in the hierarchical clustering analysis of the metabolome, whereas patterns were similar between the two genotypes at 10 and 30 DAF. Our metabolome analysis conclusively showed that 20 DAF is an important stage of fruit metabolism and that the Solanum pennellii introgressed region in IL8-3 plays a key role in metabolic changes at this stage. Carbohydrate and amino acid metabolism were found to be promoted in IL8-3 at 20 DAF and the ripening stage, respectively, whereas transcriptome analysis showed no marked differences between the two genotypes, indicating that dynamic metabolic regulation at 20 DAF and the ripening stage was controlled by relatively few genes. The transcript levels of the cell wall invertase (LIN6) and sucrose synthase (TOMSSF) genes in starch and sucrose metabolic pathway and that of the glutamate synthase (SlGOGAT) gene in the amino acid metabolic pathway in IL8-3 fruit were higher than those in M82, and SlGOGAT expression was enhanced under high-sugar conditions. The results suggest that the promotion of carbohydrate metabolism by LIN6 and TOMSSF in IL8-3 fruit at 20 DAF affects SlGOGAT expression and amino acid accumulation via higher sugar concentration at the late stage of fruit development.

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The effects of light quality on flowering time were investigated in Gypsophila paniculata, which is a long-day cut flower, and with Arabidopsis under long-day conditions with light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Gypsophila paniculata plants were grown under natural daylight and flowering was controlled by long-day treatment with a weak LED light of a single color in the night. Flowering was promoted not by blue light, but by far-red light in G. paniculata, while flowering was promoted by both light colors in Arabidopsis. FT homologs of G. paniculata GpFT1 and GpFT2 were differentially expressed under long-day conditions with white light, suggesting that they play roles in flowering at different stages of reproductive development. GpFTs and FT gene expression was not induced by far-red light in G. paniculata or Arabidopsis. Instead, the expression of the SOC1 homolog of G. paniculata GpSOC1 and SOC1 was induced by far-red light in G. paniculata and Arabidopsis. Flowering was promoted by induction of FT and SOC1 expression with blue light in Arabidopsis, whereas GpFTs and GpSOC1 expression was low with blue light induction in G. paniculata. The relationship between flowering and the expression of FT and SOC1 in Arabidopsis was confirmed with ft and soc1 mutants. These results suggest that long-day conditions with far-red light promote flowering through SOC1 and its homologs, while the conditions with blue light do not promote flowering in G. paniculata, because of low expression of GpFTs and GpSOC1 in contrast to that in Arabidopsis.

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Calcium (Ca 2+) concentration, early fruit growth, and expression of Ca 2+ -movement-related genes were analyzed during early fruit development in the tomato, which is the most important stage regarding the incidence of blossom-end rot (BER), to investigate the physiological mechanisms affecting the occurrence of BER. We used tomato introgression line IL8-3 with a chromosome segment from a wild relative (Solanum pennellii) because this line shows lower incidence of BER compared with the parent cultivar 'M82' (S. lycopersicum), as described previously. Ca 2+ concentration in fruit and leaves was higher in IL8-3 than in 'M82', whereas no significant differences were observed between Ca

A low red (R): far-red (FR) ratio is known to promote flowering of Arabidopsis and several long-day cut flowers, whereas not much information is available on the effects of single light qualities and their combinations on flowering. Therefore, the effects of light quality on the flowering of Gypsophila paniculata were investigated using light-emitting diodes (LEDs) emitting the following lights: FR, R, and blue (B). Flowering and flower budding were observed under long-day conditions with FR, while no flowering was observed under short-day conditions. Promotion of flowering and flower budding was increased under FR supplemented with R compared to FR alone. Although generally R inhibits flowering in long-day plants, a certain intensity of R, for example, the R:FR ratio between 0.23 and 0.71, may be necessary for effective promotion of flowering. In contrast, B supplementation of FR was not effective at the ratio in this study in inducing flowering and flower budding. The quality of cut flowers produced under long-day conditions with LEDs that promoted flowering was not lower than that under incandescent lamps. These results will provide basic knowledge for the development of LED bulbs as a replacement for incandescent bulbs.