Plant Physiol. Drug Metab Dispos
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Published on April 25, 2008; 10.1104/pp.108.116004

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Received January 9, 2008
Accepted April 8, 2008

Gene Expression and Metabolism in Tomato Fruit Surface Tissues

Shira Mintz-Oron , Tali Mandel , Ilana Rogachev , Liron Feldberg , Ofra Lotan , Merav Yativ , Zhonghua Wang , Reinhard Jetter , Ilya Venger , Avital Adato , and Asaph Aharoni *

Department of Plant Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, 76100, Israel; Department of Botany, UBC,-6270University Blvd, Vancouver, BC, Canada; Department of Chemistry, UBC, 2036 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC, Canada

* Corresponding author; email: asaph.aharoni{at}weizmann.ac.il.

The cuticle, covering the surface of all primary plant organs, plays important roles in plant development and protection against the biotic and abiotic environment. In contrast to vegetative organs, very little molecular information has been obtained regarding the surfaces of reproductive ones such as fleshy fruit. To broaden our knowledge related to fruit surface, comparative Transcriptome and Metabolome analyses were carried out on peel and flesh tissues during tomato fruit development. Out of 574 peel-associated transcripts, 17% were classified as putatively belonging to metabolic pathways generating cuticular components, such as wax, cutin and phenylpropanoids. Orthologues of the Arabidopsis SHINE2 and MIXTA-like regulatory factors, activating cutin and wax biosynthesis and fruit epidermal cell differentiation, respectively, were also predominantly expressed in the peel. UPLC-QTOF-MS and GC-MS/FID analyses identified 100 metabolites that are enriched in the peel tissue during development. These included flavonoids, glycoalkaloids and amyrin-type pentacyclic triterpenoids as well as polar metabolites associated with cuticle and cell wall metabolism, and protection against photo-oxidative stress. Combined results at both transcript and metabolite levels revealed that the formation of cuticular lipids precedes phenylpropanoid and flavonoid biosynthesis. Expression patterns of reporter genes driven by the upstream region of the wax associated SlCER6 gene indicated progressive activity of this wax biosynthetic gene in both fruit exocarp and endocarp. Peel-associated genes identified in our study, together with comparative analysis of genes enriched in surface tissues of various other plant species, establish a springboard for future investigations of plant surface biology.






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