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Plant Physiology 100:1103-1113 (1992)
© 1992 American Society of Plant Biologists

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Molecular Biology and Gene Regulation

Constitutive Transcription and Stable RNA Accumulation in Plastids during the Conversion of Chloroplasts to Chromoplasts in Ripening Tomato Fruits 1

María Rosa Marano and Néstor Carrillo

Departamento de Ciencias Biológicas, Area Biología Molecular, Facultad de Ciencias Bioquímicas y Farmacéuticas, Universidad Nacional de Rosario, Suipacha 531 (2000) Rosario, Argentina

The size distribution of plastid transcripts during chromoplast differentiation in ripening tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum L.) fruits was determined using northern blot analysis. Hybridization of total cellular RNA from leaves and fruits with several tobacco chloroplast DNA probes showed distinct transcript patterns in chloroplasts and chromoplasts. We also compared transcriptional rates by probing immobilized DNA fragments of small size (representing about 85% of the plastid genome) with run-on transcripts from tomato plastids. The relative rates of transcription of the various DNA regions were very similar in chloro- and chromoplasts. Parallel determination of the steady-state levels of plastid RNA showed no strict correlation between synthesis rate and RNA accumulation. Differences in the relative abundance of transcripts between chloro- and chromoplasts were not very pronounced and were limited to a small number of genes. The results indicate that the conversion of chloroplasts to chromoplasts at the onset of tomato fruit ripening proceeds with no important variations in the relative transcription rates and with only moderate changes in the relative stability of plastid-encoded transcripts.

1 This work was supported by a three-year grant from the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET, Argentina) and grants AC3529 from the International Foundation for Science (Stockholm, Sweden), RG BC 88-88 from the Third World Academy of Sciences (Trieste, Italy), and CRP/ARG 88-15 from the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (Trieste, Italy). M.R.M. and N.C. are a Fellow and a Career Investigator, respectively, from CONICET.






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Copyright © 1992 by the American Society of Plant Biologists