Genetic regulation and structural changes during tomato fruit development and ripening

Abstract

Fruits are an important evolutionary acquisition of angiosperms, which afford protection for seeds and ensure their optimal dispersal in the environment. Fruits can be divided into dry or fleshy. Dry fruits are the more ancient and provide for mechanical seed dispersal. In contrast, fleshy fruits develop soft tissues in which flavor compounds and pigments accumulate during the ripening process. These serve to attract animals that eat them and disseminate the indigestible seeds. Fruit maturation is accompanied by several striking cytological modifications. In particular, plastids undergo significant structural alterations, including the dedifferentiation of chloroplasts into chromoplasts. Chloroplast biogenesis, their remodeling in response to environmental constraints and their conversion into alternative plastid types are known to require communication between plastids and the nucleus in order to coordinate the expression of their respective genomes. In this review, we discuss the role of plastid modifications in the context of fruit maturation and ripening, and consider the possible involvement of organelle-nucleus crosstalk via retrograde (plastid to nucleus) and anterograde (nucleus to plastid) signaling in the process.

Carotenoids from fruits and vegetables: Chemistry, analysis, occurrence, bioavailability and biological activities

“…Several genetic and hormonal regulatory mechanisms are involved in the accumulation of lycopene during tomato fruit ripening (Pesaresi, Mizzotti, Colombo, & Masiero, 2014).…”

Deciphering genetic factors that determine melon fruit‐quality traits using RNA‐Seq‐based high‐resolution QTL and eQTL mapping

“…Additional GUN mutants (#2-#6) that continue to transcribe nuclear-encoded photosynthetic genes, irrespective of photosynthesis inhibition by various factors, were previously described (Koussevitzky et al, 2007;Mochizuki et al, 2001;Strand et al, 2003). Little is known of specific fruit retrograde signals that coordinate the expression of chloroplast-targeted genes, at plastid biogenesis, including the transition from chloroplasts to chromoplasts (Pesaresi et al, 2014). Related to our findings, a tetratricopeptide repeat protein (TPR) was recently shown to affect carotenoid biosynthesis and chloroplast development in Monkeyflowers, and was proposed to act through the chromoplast-to-nucleus retrograde signaling (Stanley et al, 2017).…”

Modeling Sugar Metabolism in Tomato Fruit

“…Tomato fruit development includes a stage of rapid cell division, followed by fruit expansion and then maturation (reviewed in Pesaresi et al, 2014). To establish the model parameters, the authors first examined the growth-associated increase in vacuole size and estimated the water flow across the tonoplast, since the vacuole expands dramatically during fruit development.…”