Progress on Understanding Transcriptional Regulation of Chloroplast Development in Fleshy Fruit

Abstract

Edible fleshy fruits are important food sources in the human diet. Their yield and nutritional quality have long been considered as breeding targets for improvement. Various developing fleshy fruits with functional chloroplasts are capable of photosynthesis and contribute to fruit photosynthate, leading to the accumulation of metabolites associated with nutritional quality in ripe fruit. Although tomato high-pigment mutants with dark-green fruits have been isolated for more than 100 years, our understanding of the mechanism of chloroplast development in fleshy fruit remain poor. During the past few years, several transcription factors that regulate chloroplast development in fleshy fruit were identified through map-based cloning. In addition, substantial progress has been made in elucidating the mechanisms that how these transcription factors regulate chloroplast development. This review provides a summary and update on this progress, with a framework for further investigations of the multifaceted and hierarchical regulation of chloroplast development in fleshy fruit.

Identification and Application of BhAPRR2 Controlling Peel Colour in Wax Gourd (Benincasa hispida)

“…The GLK2 TF belongs to the GARP superfamily of MYB class TFs (Riechmann et al, 2000) and has been reported in maize (Langdale and Kidner, 1994), Arabidopsis (Fitter et al, 2002), Capsicum annuum L (Brand et al, 2014), and Lycopersicon esculentum (Powell et al, 2012;Nguyen et al, 2014). GLK2 is a conserved master TF that regulates chloroplast development in fleshy fruit (Jia et al, 2020). KNOX genes may play active roles in the influence of phytohormonal cytokine on chloroplast biogenesis, development, and activity.…”

Mutations in the SmAPRR2 transcription factor suppressing chlorophyll pigmentation in the eggplant fruit peel are key drivers of a diversified colour palette

“…Leaves are the major organs of photosynthesis for most plants, where light energy is absorbed and received by chlorophyll molecules (Ospina Calvo et al, 2017). Green fruits also contain functional chloroplasts with an important photosynthetic activity that affects the fruit growth, development, and composition, leading to the accumulation of metabolites associated with nutritional quality (Ospina Calvo et al, 2017;Jia et al, 2020). Therefore, enhancing fruit chloroplast activity and accumulation can result in mature fleshy fruit with higher nutritional values (Powell et al, 2012;Pan et al, 2013;Jia et al, 2020).…”

“…Chlorophylls are the most widely distributed and important natural pigments because of their essential role in photosynthesis ( Gross, 2012 ; Jia et al., 2020 ). They are tetrapyrrole compounds, as are two other important plant cofactors, heme and phytochrome ( Senge et al., 2014 ).…”

Mutations in the SmAPRR2 transcription factor suppressing chlorophyll pigmentation in the eggplant fruit peel are key drivers of a diversified colour palette

“…Chlorophylls are the most widely distributed and important natural pigments because of their essential role in photosynthesis (Gross, 2012; Jia et al, 2020). They are tetrapyrrole compounds, as are two other important plant cofactors, heme and phytochrome (Senge et al, 2014).…”

“…Leaves are the major organs of photosynthesis for most plants, where light energy is absorbed and received by chlorophyll molecules (Calvo et al, 2017). Green fruits also contain functional chloroplasts with an important photosynthetic activity that affects the fruit growth, development, and composition, leading to the accumulation of metabolites associated with nutritional quality (Calvo et al, 2017; Jia et al, 2020). Therefore, enhancing fruit chloroplast activity and accumulation can result in mature fleshy fruit with higher nutritional values (Powell et al, 2012; Pan et al, 2013; Jia et al, 2020).…”