Insights into transcription factors controlling strawberry fruit development and ripening

Abstract

Fruit ripening is a highly regulated and complex process involving a series of physiological and biochemical changes aiming to maximize fruit organoleptic traits to attract herbivores, maximizing therefore seed dispersal. Furthermore, this process is of key importance for fruit quality and therefore consumer acceptance. In fleshy fruits, ripening involves an alteration in color, in the content of sugars, organic acids and secondary metabolites, such as volatile compounds, which influence flavor and aroma, and the remodeling of cell walls, resulting in the softening of the fruit. The mechanisms underlying these processes rely on the action of phytohormones, transcription factors and epigenetic modifications. Strawberry fruit is considered a model of non-climacteric species, as its ripening is mainly controlled by abscisic acid. Besides the role of phytohormones in the regulation of strawberry fruit ripening, a number of transcription factors have been identified as important regulators of these processes to date. In this review, we present a comprehensive overview of the current knowledge on the role of transcription factors in the regulation of strawberry fruit ripening, as well as in compiling candidate regulators that might play an important role but that have not been functionally studied to date.

Metabolomics to understand metabolic regulation underpinning fruit ripening, development, and quality

“…Transcription factor genes identified by RNAi experiments also resulted in white fruits such as ripening induced factor ( FaRIF ) ( Martín-Pizarro et al , 2021 ) or related to ABI3/viviparous 1 ( FaRAV ) ( Zhang et al , 2020 ). However, a more detailed review of the TFs controlling strawberry ripening was recently published by Sánchez-Gómez et al (2022) , and we refer readers to this for further details.…”

Comprehensive Profiling of Alternative Splicing and Alternative Polyadenylation during Fruit Ripening in Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus)

“…Ripening of fleshy fruits is a highly complex process that involves dramatic changes in sugar content, fruit color, fruit texture, flavor, and aroma [3,4]. In recent years, the mechanisms of fruit ripening have been studied extensively at the transcriptional level, and many transcription factors as well as 5-methylcytosine (5mC) DNA methylation at various gene loci have been identified and proven to be responsible for transcriptional regulation 2 of 13 of gene expression during the ripening process [5,6]. In addition, a series of studies have demonstrated that posttranscriptional control also plays vital roles in fruit ripening such as AS, APA, mRNA N6-methyladenosine RNA modification methylation and noncoding RNAs [7][8][9].…”

Proanthocyanidins Delay Fruit Coloring and Softening by Repressing Related Gene Expression during Strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa Duch.) Ripening

“…On the other hand, it has been demonstrated that the auxin and/or gibberellic acid (GA) inhibit strawberry fruit ripening [ 6 , 7 ]. To date, a large number of TFs belonging to the B-box, bHLH, MYB, MADS-box, and bZIP TF families, have been identified to participate in the strawberry fruit development and ripening process by crosstalk with phytohormones or regulation of related genes [ 8 ]. In addition, DNA hypomethylation [ 9 ] and N 6 -methyladenosine RNA modification [ 10 ] also regulate strawberry fruit ripening.…”