The genetic basis of fruit morphology in horticultural crops: lessons from tomato and melon

Abstract

Fruits represent an important part of the human diet and show extensive variation in size and shape between and within cultivated species. The genetic basis of such variation has been studied most extensively in tomato, where currently six quantitative trait loci (QTLs) involving these traits have been fine-mapped and the genes underlying the QTLs identified. The genes responsible for the cloned QTLs belong to families with a few to many members. FASCIATED is encoded by a member of the YABBY family, CNR/FW2.2 by a member of the Cell Number Regulator family, SlKLUH/FW3.2 by a cytochrome P450 of the 78A class (CYP78A), LOCULE NUMBER by a member of the WOX family including WUSCHEL, OVATE by a member of the Ovate Family Proteins (OFP), and SUN by a member of the IQ domain family. A high portion of the history and current diversity in fruit morphology among tomato cultivars can be explained by modifications at four of these cloned QTLs. In melon, a number of QTLs involved in fruit morphology have been mapped, but the molecular basis for these QTLs is unknown. In the present review, we examine the current knowledge on the molecular basis of fruit morphology in tomato and transfer that information in order to define candidate genes of melon fruit shape and size QTLs. We hypothesize that different members of the gene families identified in tomato may have a role in the regulation of fruit morphology in other species. We anchored the published melon QTL map on the genome sequence and identified the melon family members of the six cloned tomato QTLs in the genome. We investigated the co-localization of melon fruit morphology QTLs and the candidate genes. We found that QTLs for fruit weight co-localized frequently with members of the CNR/FW2.2 and KLUH/FW3.2 families, as well as co-localizations between OFP family members and fruit-shape QTLs, making this family the most suitable to explain fruit shape variation among melon accessions.

Invasive Rosa rugosa populations outperform native populations, but some populations have greater invasive potential than others

“…Increased sexual reproduction is a trait that commonly indicates invasiveness for many introduced species 9 , but the underlying mechanism may related to specific genotypes or environmental contexts (or both). We found R. rugosa shrubs in Dragør and Skanor had flatter hips with smaller hip length: width, and since hip shape is known to have a strong genetic basis 37,38 , this variation might indicate specific genotype differences that relate to invasiveness.…”

Morphological Plant Modeling: Unleashing Geometric and Topological Potential within the Plant Sciences

“…At the cellular level, root cortex cell number (Ron et al, 2013), the cellular basis of carpel size (Frary et al, 2000), and epidermal cell area and number (Tisné et al, 2008) have been analyzed. The genetic basis of cellular morphology ultimately affects organ morphology, and quantitative genetic bases for fruit shape (Paran and van der Knaap, 2007;Monforte et al, 2014), root morphology (Zhu et al, 2005;Clark et al, 2011;Topp et al, 2013;Zurek et al, 2015), shoot apical meristem shape (Leiboff et al, 2015;Thompson et al, 2015), leaf shape (Langlade et al, 2005;Ku et al, 2010;Tian et al, 2011;Chitwood et al, 2014a,b;Zhang et al, 2014;Truong et al, 2015), and tree branching (Kenis and Keulemans, 2007;Segura et al, 2009) have been described. Natural variation in cell, tissue, or organ morphology ultimately impacts plant physiology, and vice versa.…”

De novo comparative transcriptome analysis of genes involved in fruit morphology of pumpkin cultivars with extreme size difference and development of EST-SSR markers

“…Larger fruits have augmented edible parts and contain more nutrients than small fruits (van der . The genetic basis of variation in fruit size and shape has been a field of interest for geneticists and breeders for many decades (Bai and Lindhout, 2007;Monforte et al, 2014). The genetic factors that are associated with size and shape have been extensively studied in tomato and six quantitative trait loci (QTLs) associated with fruit morphology have been revealed.…”

“…The genetic factors that are associated with size and shape have been extensively studied in tomato and six quantitative trait loci (QTLs) associated with fruit morphology have been revealed. The genes underlying these QTLs have been identified and characterized only recently and it was found that they belong to multi-gene families (Monforte et al, 2014). The gene FASCIATED belongs to the YABBY family, FW2.2 is a member of the Cell Number Regulator family (CNR), SlKLUH/ FW3.2 belongs to the CYP78A family, LOCULE NUMBER is a member of the WOX family which also includes WUSCHEL.OVATE is a member of the Ovate Family Proteins (OFP), and SUN is a member of the IQ domain family (Monforte et al, 2014).…”

“…The genes underlying these QTLs have been identified and characterized only recently and it was found that they belong to multi-gene families (Monforte et al, 2014). The gene FASCIATED belongs to the YABBY family, FW2.2 is a member of the Cell Number Regulator family (CNR), SlKLUH/ FW3.2 belongs to the CYP78A family, LOCULE NUMBER is a member of the WOX family which also includes WUSCHEL.OVATE is a member of the Ovate Family Proteins (OFP), and SUN is a member of the IQ domain family (Monforte et al, 2014). Other essential components for cell division, cell expansion, and cell morphogenesis are the cell division structures known as microtubules (Lei et al, 2014).…”