Vacuolar accumulation of acidic metabolites is an important aspect of tomato fruit flavour and nutritional quality. The amino acids Asp and Glu accumulate to high concentrations during ripening, while γ-aminobutyrate (GABA) shows an approximately stoichiometric decline. Given that GABA can be catabolised to form Glu and subsequently Asp, and the requirement for the fruit to maintain osmotic hom...

Sl-ERF.B.3 (Solanum lycopersicum ethylene response factor B.3) gene encodes for a tomato transcription factor of the ERF (ethylene responsive factor) family. Our results of real-time RT-PCR showed that Sl-ERF.B.3 is an abiotic stress responsive gene, which is induced by cold, heat, and flooding, but downregulated by salinity and drought. To get more insight into the role of Sl-ERF.B.3 in plant ...

Tomato plants (Lycopersicon esculentum, var. Better Boy) were stably transformed with a gene consisting of the open reading frame of a prosystemin cDNA under the regulation of the cauliflower mosaic virus 35S promoter. The leaves of the transgenic plants constitutively produced proteinase inhibitor I and II proteins, which accumulated over time to levels exceeding 1 mg/g of dry leaf weight. Thi...

Pectin methylesterase (PME, EC 3.1.11) demethoxylates pectins and is believed to be involved in degradation of pectic cell wall components by polygalacturonase in ripening tomato fruit. We have introduced antisense and sense chimeric PME genes into tomato to elucidate the role of PME in fruit development and ripening. Fruits from transgenic plants expressing high levels of antisense PME RNA sho...

Calmodulin-like (CML) proteins are important Ca(2+) sensors, which play significant role in mediating plant stress tolerance. In the present study, cold responsive calmodulin-like (ShCML44) gene was isolated from cold tolerant wild tomato (Solanum habrochaites), and functionally characterized. The ShCML44 was differentially expressed in all plant tissues including root, stem, leaf, flower and f...

Polycomb-group (PcG) protein MULTICOPY SUPPRESSOR OF IRA1 (MSI1) protein is an evolutionarily conserved developmental suppressor and plays a crucial role in regulating epigenetic modulations. However, the potential role and function of MSI1 in fleshy fruits remain unknown. In this study, SlMSI1 was cloned and transformed into tomato to explore its function. The quantitative real-time PCR result...

Organic acid content is regarded as one of the most important quality traits of fresh tomato (Solanum lycopersicum). However, the complexity of carboxylic acid metabolism and storage means that it is difficult to predict the best way to engineer altered carboxylic acid levels. Here, we used a biochemical analysis of a tomato introgression line with increased levels of fruit citrate and malate a...

The tomato plant (Solanum lycopersicum Mill.) is sensitive to cold, and low field temperatures can result in shortened growth periods and decreased crop yield. Transcription of CRT/DRE-binding factor (CBF) is regulated by INDUCER of CBF EXPRESSION1 (ICE1). CBF activates many downstream genes that confer cold tolerance on plants. ICE1 has been used in genetic engineering to improve cold-resistan...

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicumL.) cv.Micro-Tom plants were transformedwith theArabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heyhn. MYB75/PAP1 (PRODUCTION OF ANTHOCYANIN PIGMENT 1) gene. This gene encodes for a well known transcription factor, which is involved in anthocyanin production and is modulated by light and sucrose. Transgenic tomato plants expressing AtMYB75were characterised by a significantly higher antho...

We have conducted a comprehensive metabolic profiling on tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) leaf and developing fruit tissue using a recently established gas chromatography-mass spectrometry profiling protocol alongside conventional spectrophotometric and liquid chromatographic methodologies. Applying a combination of these techniques, we were able to identify in excess of 70 small-M(r) metabolit...