Differential Effects of Up-regulation of Cell Wall Invertase Activity on Fruit and Seed Development in Tomato

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1000-2561.2019.01.009

Abstract

Abstract:

The T4 transgenic tomato with elevated CWIN activity was employed to study the effects of CWIN on seed and fruit development. It was found that the elevated CWIN activity resulted in increased fresh weight per fruit, but decreased seed number per fruit, seed germination rate and germinability. These results showed that although the development of fruit was enhanced by the elevated CWIN activity, the development of seed was impaired. Further investigations at physiological level revealed two possible reasons for the above-stated phenomenon: ①The elevation of CWIN activity led to decreased starch content and increased hexose (i.e. glucose and fructose) content, indicating there was enhanced capability of transgenic fruits in utilizing photo-assimilates, which facilitating the development of fruit and the hexose accumulation in fruit, instead of the development of seed. ②The elevation of CWIN activity also resulted in decreased content of chlorophyll in fruits, implying decreased photosynthetic activity of fruit and thus inhibiting seed development due to inadequate supply of photo-assimilates to seed from fruit photosynthesis. Altogether, the elevation of CWIN activity inhibited the development of seed, but promoted that of fruit, which could provide a new pathway to increase the yield and quality of tomato.

Key words: tomato, cell wall invertase, sucrose metabolism, fruit, seed

XIN Shuli,GUO Desheng,LAI Hanyang,LIU Yonghua. Differential Effects of Up-regulation of Cell Wall Invertase Activity on Fruit and Seed Development in Tomato[J]. Chinese Journal of Tropical Crops, 2019, 40(1): 61-66.

Figures/Tables 4

Fig. 1 Effects of the elevation of CWIN activity on fruit number per plant and fresh weight per fruit (40 d after flowering) * indicates significant differences between transgenic and wild-type tomato (p≤0.05).

Fig. 2 Effects of the elevation of CWIN activity on the content of glucose (Glc), fructose (Fru), sucrose (Suc) and starch in tomato fruit * indicates significant differences between transgenic and wild-type tomato (p≤0.05).

Fig. 3 Effects of the elevation of CWIN activity on weight per thousand seeds, seed number per fruit, and seed germination rate and germinability * indicates significant differences between transgenic and wild-type tomato (p≤0.05).

Fig. 4 Effects of the elevation of CWIN activity on color and chlorophyll content of tomato fruit Scale bar in A represents 1 cm; * in B indicates significant differences between transgenic and wild-type tomato (p≤0.05).

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